harun yahya islam eternity has already begun

Eternity Has

Already Begun

r

Harun Yahya

First published April 2001Goodword Books, 2001

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To The Reader

The reason why a special chapter is assigned to the collapse of the theory ofevolution is that this theory constitutes the basis of all anti-spiritual philoso-

phies. Since Darwinism rejects the fact of creation, and therefore the existenceof God, during the last 140 years it has caused many people to abandon theirfaith or fall into doubt. Therefore, showing that this theory is a deception is avery important duty, which is strongly related to the religion. It is imperativethat this important service be rendered to everyone. Some of our readers mayfind the chance to read only one of our books. Therefore, we think it appropri-

ate to spare a chapter for a summary of this subject.

In all the books by the author, faith-related issues are explained in the light ofthe Qur'anic verses and people are invited to learn God's words and to live bythem. All the subjects that concern God's verses are explained in such a way

as to leave no room for doubt or question marks in the reader's mind. The sin-cere, plain and fluent style employed ensures that everyone of every age andfrom every social group can easily understand the books. This effective andlucid narrative makes it possible to read them in a single sitting. Even those

who rigorously reject spirituality are influenced by the facts recounted in thesebooks and cannot refute the truthfulness of their contents.

This book and all the other works of the author can be read individually ordiscussed in a group at a time of conversation. Those readers who are willingto profit from the books will find discussion very useful in the sense that they

will be able to relate their own reflections and experiences to one another.

In addition, it will be a great service to the religion to contribute to the presen-tation and reading of these books, which are written solely for the good plea-

sure of God. All the books of the author are extremely convincing. For this rea-son, for those who want to communicate the religion to other people, one of

the most effective methods is to encourage them to read these books.

In these books, you will not find, as in some other books, the personal viewsof the author, explanations based on dubious sources, styles that are unobser-vant of the respect and reverence due to sacred subjects, nor hopeless, doubt-

creating, and pessimistic accounts that create deviations in the heart.

About The Author

The author, who writes under the pen-name HARUN YAHYA, was born in Ankara in 1956. Hestudied arts at Istanbul's Mimar Sinan University and philosophy at Istanbul University. Sincethe 1980s, the author has published many books on political, faith-related and scientific issues.Harun Yahya is well-known as an author who has written very important works disclosing theforgery of evolutionists, the invalidity of their claims and the dark liaisons betweenDarwinism and bloody ideologies.

His pen-name is made up of the names "Harun" (Aaron) and "Yahya" (John), in memory of thetwo esteemed prophets who fought against lack of faith. The Prophet’s seal on the cover of theauthor’s books has a symbolic meaning linked to the their contents. This seal represents theQur'an as the last Book by God and the last word of Him and our Prophet, the last of all theprophets. Under the guidance of the Qur'an and Sunnah, the author makes it his main goal todisprove each one of the fundamental tenets of disbelieving ideologies and to say the "lastword", so as to completely silence the objections raised against religion. The seal of theProphet, who attained ultimate wisdom and moral perfection, is used as a sign of his intentionof saying this last word.

All these works by the author centre around one goal: to convey the message of the Qur'an topeople and thus to encourage them to think about basic faith-related issues, such as the exis-tence of God, His unity and the hereafter, and to remind them of some important issues.

Harun Yahya enjoys a wide readership in many countries such as India, America, England,Indonesia, Poland, Bosnia, Spain and Brazil. His books have been translated into many lan-guages, and English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Urdu, Arabic, Albanian, Russian,Serbo-Croat (Bosnian), Uygur Turkish, and Indonesian versions are available.

Greatly appreciated all around the world, these works have been instrumental in many peopleputting their faith in God and in many others gaining a deeper insight into their faith. The wis-dom, and the sincere and easy-to-understand style employed give these books a distinct touchwhich directly strikes any one who reads or examines them. Immune to objections, theseworks are characterised by their features of rapid effectiveness, definite results and ir-refutability. The explanations provided in the books are undeniable, explicit and sincere, andenrich the reader with definitive answers. It is unlikely that those who read these books andgive a serious thought to them can any longer sincerely advocate the materialistic philosophy,atheism and any other perverted ideology or philosophy. Even if they continue to advocate,this proves to be only a sentimental insistence since these books refute these ideologies fromtheir very basis. All contemporary movements of denial are ideologically defeated today,thanks to the collection of books written by Harun Yahya.

There is no doubt that these features result from the wisdom and lucidity endowed them byGod. The author certainly does not feel proud of himself; he merely intends to serve as a meansin one’s search for God's right path. Furthermore, the author makes no material gains from hisbooks. Neither the writer, nor those who are instrumental in publishing and making thesebooks accessible to the reader, make any material gains. They merely serve to earn the goodpleasure of God.

Considering these facts, those who encourage people to read these books, which open the"eyes" of the heart and guide them in becoming more devoted servants of God, render an in-valuable service.

Meanwhile, it would just be a waste of time and energy to propagate books which create con-fusion in people's minds, lead people into ideological chaos, and which clearly have no strongand precise effects in removing the doubts in peoples’ hearts. It is apparent that it is impos-sible for books devised to put the stress on author’s literary power rather than the noble goalof saving people from loss of faith, to have such a great effect. Those who doubt this can read-ily see that the sole aim of Harun Yahya's books is to overcome disbelief and to disseminatethe moral values of the Qur'an. The success, impact and sincerity this service has rendered aremanifest in the reader’s conviction.

One point needs to be kept in mind: The main reason for the continuing cruelty and conflict,and all the ordeals Muslims undergo is the ideological prevalence of lack of religion. Thesethings can only come to an end with the ideological defeat of lack of faith and by ensuringthat everybody knows about the wonders of creation and Qur'anic morality, so that peoplecan live by it. Considering the state of the world today, which forces people into the down-ward spiral of violence, corruption and conflict, it is clear that this service has to be providedmore speedily and effectively. Otherwise, it may be too late.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Harun Yahya series have assumed this leading role. By theWill of God, these books will be the means through which people in the 21st century will at-tain the peace and bliss, justice and happiness promised in the Qur'an.

The works of the author include The Disasters Darwinism Brought to Humanity, Communism inAmbush, The 'Secret Hand' in Bosnia, The Holocaust Hoax, Behind the Scenes of Terrorism, Isra-el's Kurdish Card, Solution: The Morals of the Qur'an, The Evolution Deceit, Perished Nations, ForMen of Understanding, The Prophet Musa, The Golden Age, Allah's Artistry in Colour, Glory isEverywhere, The Truth of the Life of This World, Knowing the Truth, The Dark Magic of Darwi-nism, The Religion of Darwinism, The Qur'an Leads the Way to Science, The Real Origin of Life,The Consciousness of the Cell, The Creation of the Universe, Miracles of the Qur'an, The Design inNature, Self-Sacrifice and Intelligent Behaviour Models in Animals, Children Darwin Was Lying!,The End of Darwinism, Deep Thinking, Never Plead Ignorance.

The author's other works on Quranic topics include: Devoted to Allah, Abandoning the Society ofIgnorance, Paradise, Knowledge of the Qur'an, Qur'an Index, Emigrating for the Cause of Allah,The Character of Hypocrites in the Qur'an, The Secrets of the Hypocrite, The Names of Allah, Com-municating the Message and Disputing in the Qur'an, Answers from the Qur'an, Death Resurrecti-on Hell, The Struggle of the Messengers, The Avowed Enemy of Man: Satan, Idolatry, The Religi-on of the Ignorant, The Arrogance of Satan, Prayer in the Qur'an, The Importance of Conscience inthe Qur'an, The Day of Resurrection, Never Forget, Disregarded Judgements of the Qur'an, HumanCharacters in the Society of Ignorance, The Importance of Patience in the Qur'an, General Informa-tion from the Qur'an, The Mature Faith, Before You Regret, Our Messengers Say, The Mercy of Be-lievers, The Fear of Allah, The Nightmare of Disbelief, Prophet Isa Will Come, Beauties Presentedby the Qur'an for Life, Bouquet of the Beauties of Allah 1-2-3-4, The Iniquity Called "Mockery", TheSecret of the Test, The True Wisdom According to the Qur'an, The Struggle with the Religion of Ir-religion, The School of Yusuf, The Alliance of the Good, Slanders Spread Against Muslims Thro-ughout History, The Importance of Following the Good Word, Why Do You Deceive Yourself?, Is-lam: The Religion of Ease, Enthusiasm and Vigor in the Qur'an, Seeing Good in Everything, Howdoes the Unwise Interpret the Qur'an?, Some Secrets of the Qur'an, The Courage of Believers, BeingHopeful in the Qur'an, Justice and Tolerance in the Qur'an

Introduction 11

The Secret Beyond Matter 12

Timelessness and the Reality of Fate 52

Eternity Has Already Begun 66

Conclusion 100

The Evolution Deceit 104

Notes 126

hat does the word "eternity" mean to you? One always tends to associate the concept of eternity withfigures such as a thousand years, one million or a billion

years. Such a concept of time seems to suggest an everlasting period. Sim-ilarly, what the concept of "infinite distance" evokes in the mind is greatdistances, like a hundred thousand or a million light years.

Nevertheless, even if you endeavour to think of the greatest figurepossible, you are still limited by the intellectual capacity of your mind. Anexample would contribute to a fuller understanding of the extraordinaryextent of eternity: if a quadrillion of people spent all their lives, lastingalso a quadrillion years, doing nothing but counting numbers, day andnight without stopping, they would still fail to arrive at eternity, sinceeternity as a concept has no beginning and no end.

However, in the sight of God, the Almighty, this concept of the "ever-lasting" and accordingly absolutely incomputable, has already ended.Eternity, which appears to be an unattainable concept for us, is actuallyjust a single moment in the sight of God.

This book presents to you unprecedented explanations of timeless-ness, spacelessness and eternity, and makes you confront an importantfact: that eternity has already begun. The realization of this fact will makeyou once again appreciate God, the Almighty and Exalted, and His cre-ation. Meanwhile, you will find comprehensible answers to some fre-quently asked questions: Where is God? What is the resurrection? What isthe true nature of death? Is there an endless life? and When will all thesehappen?

Yet, before proceeding with these issues, some concepts like "the realnature of matter" and "timelessness," will be dealt with in detail for a bet-ter comprehension of the above-mentioned subject.

11

WWARNINGARNINGThe chapter you are about to read reveals

CRUCIAL SECRETS of your life. You

should read it very attentively and thoroughly,

for it concerns a subject that is liable to make

fundamental changes in your outlook on the

external world, the concept of time, and eternity. The

subject of this chapter is not just a point of view, a

different approach, or a traditional or philosophical

thought: it is a fact which everyone, believing or unbelieving,

will admit and which is also proven by science today..

he concept of "the nature of matter" is one liable to changeone’s outlook on life, and indeed, one’s whole life, once itsessence is known. This subject is directly related to the mean-

ing of your life, your expectations from the future, your ideals, passions,desires, plans, the concepts you esteem, and the material things you pos-sess.

The subject matter of this chapter, "the nature of matter", is not a sub-ject raised today for the first time. Throughout the history of humanity,many thinkers and scientists have discussed this concept. Right from thestart, people have been divided into two groups on this issue; one group,known as materialists, based their philosophies and lives on the substan-tial existence of matter and lived by deceiving themselves. Another groupacted sincerely, and being unafraid of thinking more profoundly, led theirlives by grasping the essence of the "things" to which they were exposedand the deep meaning lying beyond them. However, advances in the sci-ence and technology of our age have finally ended this controversy byindisputably proving the self-evident fact that matter has no substantialexistence.

The importance of the subject comes from its impact on man’s wholelife. Every person has a limited lifetime, and everyone is tested by Godduring this period. Each individual will subsequently be recompensedstrictly according to the path he chose to follow, the manners and charac-ter he displayed in this world, his eternal life being shaped by what he hasmerited. This means that in his endless life, he will be requited for the lifehe has chosen in the world, and will never again have the chance to makeamends for his mistakes.

From this viewpoint, it is easier to understand the value of people’slives on earth. Hence the importance of the subject tackled in this book.Since everyone has a short test time, and will be rewarded or punished forhis deeds in his endless afterlife, then it surely follows that he must spendthis period in the wisest way. If he fails to do that, his ultimate remorsewill be of no avail.

The purpose of this book is to help man before he reaches the stage

13

ETERNITY HAS ALREADY BEGUN

of repentance, with no chance of atonement on "that day" when man will

go to his Creator "all alone just as He created him at first." (Surat al-

An'am: 94)

The real nature of matter is first addressed, therefore, from a scien-

tific perspective. As we have earlier stated, the subjects described here are

definitely not a matter of opinion or a philosophical idea, but facts proved

in many fields of science. However, this subject is not a complex, incom-

prehensible or difficult one, as is commonly supposed. Anyone who does

not flinch from thinking and who sincerely reflects upon reality will easi-

ly come to a very important conclusion in terms of his own life, once he

has grasped these facts.

What you will read now will perhaps become the key to many issues

which you were hitherto unable to resolve or completely understand; you

will have a fuller comprehension of concepts such as paradise, hell, and

the hereafter in depth and live by acknowledging the meaning of life.

The Long Discussed Question:

What is the Real Nature of Matter?

Someone who conscientiously and wisely contemplates the universe

he inhabits, the galaxies, the planets, the balance therein, the willpower in

the structure of the atom, the order he comes across in every part of the

universe, the countless living species around him, the way they live, their

amazing traits, and finally his own body, will instantly realize that there

is something extraordinary about all these things. He will readily under-

stand that this perfect order and the subtleties around him could not have

originated by themselves, but must certainly have had a Creator.

The question we must answer is: "By Whom were all these things

created?"

It is obvious that "the fact of creation," which is self-evident in every

domain of the universe, cannot be an outcome of the universe itself. For

example, a peacock, with its colouring and design implying a matchless

art, cannot have created itself. The miniscule equilibriums in the universe

14

cannot have created or organized themselves. Neither plants, humans,bacteria, erythrocytes (red-blood corpuscles), nor butterflies can have cre-ated themselves. Moreover, the possibility that all these entities couldhave originated "by chance" is not even imaginable.

It is evident that everything that we see has been created, but noneof the things we see can themselves be "creators." The Creator is differentfrom and superior to all that we see with our eyes. He is invisible, buteverything He has created reveals His existence and attributes.

This is the point at which those who deny the existence of Goddemur. Such people have been conditioned not to believe in His existenceunless they see Him with their eyes. In their view, there is a heap of mat-ter throughout the whole universe, spreading out until eternity and Godis nowhere in this heap of matter. Even if they travelled thousands of lightyears, they think they would not meet God. This is why they deny Hisexistence. Therefore, these people, who disregard the fact of "creation,"are forced to reject the actuality of "creation" manifest throughout the uni-verse and try to prove that the universe and the living things in it havenot been created. However, it is impossible for them to do this, becauseevery corner of the universe overflows with the evidence of God’s being.

The basic mistake of those who deny God is shared by many peoplewho do not really deny the existence of God but have a wrong perceptionof Him. They do not deny the signs of "creation" which are everywheremanifest but have superstitious beliefs about "where" God is. Most ofthem think that God is up in the "sky." They tacitly and wrongly imaginethat God is behind a very distant planet and interferes with "worldlyaffairs" once in a while, or perhaps does not intervene at all. They imag-ine that He created the universe and then left it to itself, leaving people todetermine their fates for themselves.

Still others have heard the fact stated in the Qur’an that God is"everywhere," but they cannot conceive of what exactly this means. Inaccordance with the distorted thought in their subconscious, they thinkthat God surrounds everything—like radio waves or like an invisible,intangible gas.



However, this and other beliefs that are unclear about "where" God

is (and maybe because of that deny Him) are all based on a common mis-

take. They are prejudiced without reason and so are liable to have wrong

opinions of God. What is this prejudice?

This prejudice is about the nature and characteristics of matter. Man

is so conditioned in his suppositions about the existence of matter that he

never thinks about whether it does or does not exist, or whether it is only

a shadow. Modern science demolishes this prejudice and discloses a very

important and revealing reality. In the following pages, we will clarify this

great reality to which the Qur’an points.

We Live in a Universe Presented to

Us by Our Perceptions

According to Albert Camus, you can grasp and count happenings

through science, but you cannot grasp the universe. Here is the tree, you

feel its hardness; here is the water, you taste it. Here is the wind, it cools

you. You have to be satisfied with all that.1 All the information that we

have about the realness of the world in which we live is conveyed to us

by our five senses. The world we know of consists of what our eyes see,

our hands feel, our noses smell, our tongues taste, and our ears hear. We

never think that the "external" world could be anything other than that

which our senses present to us, as we have been dependent solely on

those senses since birth.

Modern research in many different fields of science points to a very

different fact and creates serious doubt about our senses and the world

that we perceive with them.

According to scientific findings, what we perceive as "the external

world," is only the result of the brain being stimulated by the electrical

signals sent to it by our sense organs. The multi-hued colours you per-

ceive with your sense of sight, the feeling of hardness or softness con-

veyed by your sense of touch, the tastes you experience on your tongue,

the different notes and sounds you hear with your ear, the variety of

16

scents you smell, your work, your home, all your possessions, the lines ofthis book, and moreover, your mother, your father, your family, the wholeworld you have always seen, known, got used to throughout your life, arecomprised purely and simply of electrical signals sent by your senseorgans to the brain. Though this seems difficult on the first analysis, thisis a scientific fact. The views of renowned philosophers like Bertrand Rus-sell and L. Wittgeinstein on this subject are as follows:

For instance, whether a lemon truly exists or not and how it came to exist

cannot be questioned or investigated. A lemon consists merely of a taste

sensed by the tongue, an odour sensed by the nose, a colour and shape

sensed by the eye; and only these features of it can be subject to examination

and assessment. Science can never know the physical world.2

Frederick Vester explains the point that science has reached on thissubject:


Stimulations coming from an object areconverted into electrical signals and causeeffects in the brain. When we "see", we infact view the effects of these electricalsignals on the mind.


The statements of certain scientists that "man is an image, everything expe-

rienced is temporary and deceptive, and this universe is a shadow," seem to

be proven by science in our day. 3

The thoughts of the famous philosopher, George Berkeley, on the

subject can be summarised like this:

We believe in the existence of objects just because we see and touch them,

and they are reflected to us by our perceptions. However, our perceptions

are only ideas in our mind. Thus, objects we captivate by perceptions are

nothing but ideas, and these ideas are essentially in nowhere but our

mind… Since all these exist only in the mind, then it means that we are

beguiled by deceptions when we imagine the universe and things to have

an existence outside the mind. So, none of the surrounding things have an

existence out of our mind.4

In order to clarify the subject, let us consider our sense of sight,

which provides us with the most extensive information about the external

world.

How Do Our Sense Organs Work?

Few people think deeply on how the act of seeing takes place. Every-

one answers the question "How do we see?" by saying "with our eyes for

sure." However, when we look at the technical explanation of the process

of seeing, it seems that that is not the case. The act of seeing is realized

progressively. Light clusters (photons) travel from the object to the eye

and pass through the lens at the front of the eye where they are refracted

and fall upside down on the retina at the back of the eye. Here, imping-

ing light is turned into electrical signals that are transmitted by neurons

to a tiny spot called the centre of vision in the back of the brain. The act of

seeing actually takes place in this tiny spot in the posterior part of the

brain, which is pitch-dark and completely insulated from light.Now, let us reconsider this seemingly ordinary and unremarkable

process. When we say, "we see," we are, in fact, seeing the effects of

impulses reaching our eyes and induced in our brain, after they are trans-

formed into electrical signals. That is, when we say, "we see," we are actu-

18

ally observing the aggregate of the electrical signals in our mind. There-fore, seeing is not a process terminating in the eye; our eye is only a senseorgan serving as a means in the process of seeing.

All the images we view in our lives are formed in our centre ofvision, in the size of a nut, which only comprises a few cubic centimetresof the volume of the brain. Both the book you are now reading, and thescreen of your computer, and the boundless landscape you see when yougaze at the horizon, and the seamless sea, and a crowd of people who par-ticipate in a marathon, fit into this tiny space. Another point that has to bekept in mind is that, as we have noted before, the brain is insulated fromlight; its inside is absolutely dark. The brain has no contact with lightitself. The place called the centre of vision is a place which is pitch-dark,where light never reaches, so dark that maybe you have never been some-where like it before. However, you watch a bright, multi-coloured worldin this complete darkness. A multi-coloured nature, a glowing landscape,all tones of green, the colours of fruits, the patterns on flowers, the bright-ness of the sun, all the people in a crowded street, vehicles moving fast inthe traffic, hundreds of clothes in a shopping mall, and everything else areall images formed in this pitch dark place. Even the formation of coloursin this darkness has still not been discovered. Klaus Budzinski comments:

… Chromatists cannot answer the question of how the network in the eye

that perceives light as well as colours transmits this information to the brain

through sight nerves and what kind of physical-physiological stimulations

this creates in the brain.5

We can explain this interesting situation with an example. Let ussuppose that in front of us there is a burning candle. We can sit oppositethis candle and watch it at length. However, during this period, our brainnever has any direct contact with the original light of the candle. Even aswe feel the heat and light of the candle, the inside of our brain is com-pletely dark and its temperature never changes. We watch a colourful andbright world inside our dark brain.

The same is true of sunlight. Your eye’s being dazzled in sunlight oryour feeling the scorching heat on your skin does not change the fact that


Rays of light coming from an object fall upside-down on the retina as seen in the above picture.Here, the image is converted into electrical signals and transmitted to the centre of vision at theback of the brain. The centre of vision is a very tiny place. Since the brain is insulated from light,it is impossible for light to reach the centre of vision. This means that we view a vast world oflight and depth in a tiny spot that is insulated from light. Even at the moment when we feel thelight and heat of a fire, the inside of our brain is pitch dark and its temperature never changes.

these are mere perceptions and the centre of vision in your brain is com-pletely dark.

R. L. Gregory gives the following explanation about the miraculousaspects of seeing — something that we take so much for granted:

We are so familiar with seeing, that it takes a leap of imagination to realize

that there are problems to be solved. But consider it. We are given tiny dis-

torted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see separate solid objects in

surrounding space. From the patterns of simulation on the retinas we per-

ceive the world of objects, and this is nothing short of a miracle.6

The same situation applies to all our other senses. Sound, touch,taste, and smell are all perceived as electrical signals in the brain.

The sense of hearing works in a similar manner to that of sight. Theouter ear picks up sounds by the auricle and directs them to the middleear. The middle ear transmits the sound vibrations to the inner ear andintensifies them. The inner ear translates the vibrations into electrical sig-nals, which it sends into the brain. Just as with the eye, the act of hearingfinally takes place in the centre of hearing in the brain.

What is true of the eye is also true of the ear, that is, the brain is insu-lated from sound just as it is from light. Therefore, no matter how noisy itis outside, the inside of the brain is completely silent. Nevertheless, eventhe subtlest sounds are perceived in the brain. This process is so precisethat the ear of a healthy person hears everything without any atmospher-ic noise or interference. In your brain, which is insulated from sound, andwhere there is dead silence, you listen to the symphonies of an orchestra,hear all the noises of a crowded place, and perceive all the sounds withina wide frequency range, from the rustling of a leaf to the roar of a jetplane. However, if the sound level in your brain were to be measured bya sensitive device at that moment, it would be seen that complete silenceprevailed within it.

Our perception of odour works in a similar way. Volatile moleculesemitted by things such as vanilla or a rose reach the receptors in the deli-cate hairs in the epithelial region of the nose and become involved in aninteraction. This interaction is transmitted to the brain as electrical signals



and perceived as smell. Everything that we smell, be it pleasant orunpleasant, is nothing but the brain’s perception of the interactions ofvolatile molecules after they have been transformed into electrical signals.You perceive the scent of a perfume, a flower, a food that you like, the sea,or other odours you like or dislike, in your brain. The molecules them-selves never reaches the brain. Just as with sound and vision, what reach-es your brain as you sense an odour is simply a set of electrical signals. Inother words, all the odours that you have assumed – since you were born– to belong to external objects are just electrical signals that you experi-ence through your sense organs. Berkeley also said:

At the beginning, it was believed that colours, odours, etc., "really exist," but

subsequently such views were renounced, and it was seen that they only

exist in dependence on our sensations.7

Similarly, there are four different types of chemical receptors in thefront part of a human being’s tongue. These pertain to the four tastes:salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Our taste receptors transform these percep-tions into electrical signals through a chain of chemical processes andtransmit them to the brain. These signals are perceived as taste by thebrain. The taste you experience when you eat a chocolate bar or a fruitthat you like is the interpretation of electrical signals by the brain. You cannever reach the object in the external world; you can never see, smell ortaste the chocolate itself. For instance, if the taste nerves that travel to thebrain were cut, the taste of things you ate would not reach your brain; youwould completely lose your sense of taste.

At this point, we come across another fact: We can never be sure that what we experience when we taste a food

and what another person experiences when he tastes the same food, orwhat we perceive when we hear a voice and what another person per-ceives when he hears the same voice are the same. Lincoln Barnett saysthat no one can know whether another person perceives the colour redor hears the note C in same way as does he himself.8

We only know as much as our sense organs relate to us. It is impos-sible for us to reach the physical reality outside us directly. It is again the

22

brain that interprets it. We can never reach the original. Therefore, even

when we talk about the same thing, others’ brains may be perceiving

something different. The reason for this is that what is perceived depends

on the perceiver.

The same logic applies to our sense of touch. When we touch an

object, all information that will help us recognize the external world and

the objects in it is transmitted to the brain by the sense nerves on the skin.

The feeling of touch is formed in our brain. Contrary to general belief, the

place where we perceive the sense of touch is not at our fingertips, or on

our skins, but at the centre of touch perception in our brains. Because of

the brain’s interpretation of the electrical stimuli coming to it from objects,

we experience those objects differently, e.g. they may be hard or soft, hot

or cold. We derive all the details that help us recognize an object from

these stimuli. The renowned philosopher Bertrand Russell comments in

relation to this:

As to the sense of touch when we press the table with our fingers, that is an

electric disturbance on the electrons and protons of our fingertips, pro-

duced, according to modern physics, by the proximity of the electrons and

protons in the table. If the same disturbance in our finger-tips arose in any

other way, we should have the sensations, in spite of there being no table.9

That the outside world can be identified completely through the

senses is a scientific fact. In his book, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of

Human Knowledge, George Berkeley comments as follows:

By sight I have the ideas of light and colours, with their several degrees and

variations. By touch I perceive hard and soft, heat and cold, motion and

resistance. . . . Smelling furnishes me with odours; the palate with tastes; and

hearing conveys sounds. . . . And as several of these are observed to accom-

pany each other, they come to be marked by one name, and so to be reput-

ed as one thing. Thus, for example, a certain colour, taste, smell, figure and

consistence having been observed to go together, are accounted one dis-

tinct thing, signified by the name apple; other collections of ideas consti-

tute a stone, a tree, a book, and the like sensible things. . .10

Therefore, by processing the data in the centres of vision, sound,



smell, taste and touch, our brains, throughout our lives, do not confront

the "original" of the matter existing outside us but rather the copy formed

inside our brain. It is at this point that we are misled by assuming these

copies are instances of the real matter outside us. However, as seen

throughout the book, there are also thinkers and scientists who have not

been misled by such a misconception, and who have realized this fact.

Even Ali Demirsoy, one of the most famous Turkish materialists, also

confessed this truth:

In truth, there is neither light as we see it, nor sound as we hear it, nor heat

as we sense it in the universe. Our sense organs mislead us between the

external world and brain and give rise to interpretations which are irrele-

vant to reality in the brain.11

Do We Spend Our Entire Life in Our Brains?

From the physical facts described so far, we may conclude the fol-

lowing. Everything we see, touch, hear, and perceive as “matter,” “the

world” or “the universe” is only electrical signals occurring in our brain.

Therefore, someone drinking an orange juice does not confront the actual

drink but its perception in the brain. The object considered by the onlook-

er to be a “drink” actually consists of electrical impressions of the orange

colour, sweet taste, and liquid feeling of the orange juice in the brain. The

situation is no different while eating chocolate; the electrical data pertain-

ing to the shape, taste, odour, and hardness of the chocolate are perceived

in the brain. If the sight nerves travelling to the brain were suddenly to be

severed, the image of the chocolate would just as suddenly disappear. A

disconnection in the nerve travelling from the sensors in the nose to the

brain would completely interrupt the sense of smell.

Put simply, the tree that you see, the objects you smell, the chocolate

you taste, and the orange juice you drink are nothing but the brain’s inter-

pretation of electrical signals.

Another point to be considered, which might be deceptive, is the

sense of distance. For example, the distance between you and this book

24

is only a feeling of space formed in your brain. Objects that seem to be dis-

tant from the human viewpoint also exist only in the brain. For instance,

someone who watches the stars in the sky assumes that they are millions

of light-years away from him. Yet, what he “sees” are really the stars

inside himself, in his centre of vision. During a trip, one looks at the city

below from a plane and thinks that it is kilometres away from him. How-

ever, the whole length and breadth of the city are inside one’s brain along

with all the people in it.

Today, all scientific data prove that the image we perceive is formed

in our brain.

There is yet another misleading, but very important factor. While

you read these lines, you are, in truth, not inside the room you assume

yourself to be in; on the contrary, the room is inside you. Your seeing your

body makes you think that you are inside it. However, you must remem-

ber that your body, too, is an image formed inside your brain. Bertrand

Russell states the following on the subject:

What we can say, on the basis of physics itself, is that what we have hither-

All we see in our lives is formed in a part of our brain called the "centre of vision"which lies at the back of our brain, and occupies only a few cubic centimetres. Boththe image of a small room and the boundless landscape you see when you gaze atthe horizon fit into this tiny space. Therefore, we see objects not in their actual sizesexisting outside, but in the sizes perceived by our brain.


to called our body is really an elaborate scientific construction not corre-

sponding to any physical reality. 12

The truth is very clear. If we can feel the external world only throughour sense organs, then there would be no consistent reason for us to con-sider our body to be separate from the external world, that is, to concedethat our body has a separate existence.

Our body is also presented to us by the electrical stimulations(impulses) reaching our brain. These impulses, just like all others, are con-verted into certain sensations, or feelings in our brain. For instance, thefeeling of touch occurring when we touch our body with our hand, thefeeling of weight caused by the force of gravity, the feeling of seeingcaused by the light rays reflected from our body, etc… all these areassessed as a “collection of feelings” by the brain, and we “feel” our body.As revealed by these scientific facts, throughout our lives, we are exposednot to our original body, but to the impulses reaching our brain pertain-ing to our body. These impulses are identified as “our body” in our per-ception.

The same applies to all your other perceptions. For instance, whenyou think that you hear the sound of the television in the next room, youare actually experiencing the sound inside your brain. You can prove nei-ther that a room exists next to yours, nor that a sound comes from the tele-vision in that room. Both the sound you think to be coming from metresaway and the conversation of a person right next to you are perceived ina centre of hearing in your brain which is only a few square centimetresin size. Apart from within this centre of perception, no concept such asright, left, front or behind exists. That is, sound does not come to you fromthe right, from the left or from the air; there is no direction from whichsound comes.

The smells that you perceive are like that too; none of them reachesyou from a great distance. You suppose that the end-effects formed inyour centre of smell are the smell of the objects in the external world.However, just as the image of a rose is in your centre of vision, so thesmell of the rose is in your centre of smell; there is neither a rose nor an

26

odour pertaining to it in the external world.The same facts hold true also for heat. One of the foremost philoso-

phers of his age, George Berkeley, clarifies with the following examplethat senses like coldness and hotness cannot be judged to exist outside themind:

Suppose now one of your hands hot, and the other cold, and that they are

both at once put into the same vessel of water, in an intermediate state;

will not the water seem cold to one hand, and warm to the other?13

Berkeley is right in his analysis. Had heat or cold been present in thematter itself, both hands would have felt the same thing.

The “external world” presented to us by our perceptions is merely acollection of electrical signals reaching our brains. Throughout our lives,our brains process and interpret these signals and we live without recog-nizing that we are mistaken in assuming thatthese are the original versions of things exist-ing in the “external world”. We are misledbecause we can never reach these entitiesthemselves by means of our senses. This pointis extremely important.

Moreover, again our brains interpret andattribute meaning to signals that we assume tobe the “external world.” For example, let usconsider the sense of hearing. Our brains trans-form the sound waves in the “external world”into a rhythm. That is to say, music is also aperception created by our brains. In the samemanner, when we see colours, what reachesour eyes is merely a set of electrical signals ofdifferent wavelengths. Again our brains trans-form these signals into colours. There are nocolours in the “external world.” Neither is thelemon yellow, nor is the sky blue, nor are thetrees green. They are as they are just because


The findings of modernphysics show that the uni-

verse is a collection of per-ceptions. The following

question appears on thecover of the well-known

American science magazineNew Scientist, which dealt

with this topic in its 30January 1999 issue:

"Beyond Reality: Is theUniverse Really a Frolic of

Primal Information andMatter Just a Mirage?"


we perceive them to be so. The “external world” depends entirely on the

perceiver. Colour blindness is important evidence for this. Even the slight-

est defect in the retina of the eye causes colour blindness. Some people

perceive blue as green, and some red as blue. At this point, it does not

matter whether the object externally is coloured or not.

According to the prominent thinker Berkeley:

If the same things can be red and hot for some and the contrary for others,

this means that we are under the influence of misconceptions and that

“things” only exist in our brains.14

In conclusion, the reason we see objects as coloured is not because

they are coloured or because they have an independent material existence

outside ourselves. Had colours existed outside us, a deficiency called

colour blindness would not have existed. The truth of the matter is rather

that all the qualities we ascribe to objects are inside us and not in the

“external world.”

Is the Existence of the “External World”

Indispensable?

So far, we have been speaking repeatedly of the existence of a world

of perceptions formed in our brains, and making the assertion that we can

never actually reach this world. Then, how can we be sure that such a

world really exists?

Actually, we cannot. Since each object is only a collection of percep-

tions and those perceptions exist only in the mind, it is more accurate to

say that the only world that really exists is the world of perceptions. The

only world we know of is the world that exists in our mind: the one that

is designed, recorded, and made vivid there; the one, in short, that is cre-

ated within our mind. This is the only world of which we can be sure.

We can never prove that the perceptions we observe in our brain

have material correlates. Those perceptions could conceivably be coming

from an “artificial” source.

We can visualize this with such an example:

28


As a result of artificial stimuli,a physical world as true andrealistic as the original onecan be formed in our brainwithout the existence of thephysical world. As a result ofartificial stimuli, a person mayimagine that he is flying anairplane, while he is actuallysitting at home.

First, let us imagine that we take your brain out of your body andkeep it alive artificially in a glass cube. Next to it, let us place a computerwith which all kinds of electrical signals can be produced. Then, let usartificially produce and record in this computer the electrical signals ofthe data related to a setting, such as image, sound, odour, hardness-soft-ness, taste, and body image. This experiment with your brain, which wehave taken out of your body, will be carried out on the peak of a desertedmountain. Finally, let us connect the computer to the brain with electrodesthat will function as nerves and send the pre-recorded data to your brainwhich is now high above the clouds. As your brain (which is literally you)perceives these signals, it will see and experience the corresponding set-ting. For instance, let us suppose that every detail that comes to mindabout a football match in a stadium be produced or recorded – in a wayto be perceived through the sense organs. In your brain, all by itself at thesummit of the mountain, with this recording instrument connected to it,you would feel as if you were living in this artificially created setting. Youwould think that you were at the match. You would cheer, you would


sometimes get angry and sometimes be pleased. Moreover, you wouldoften bump into other people because of the crowd, and therefore feeltheir existence, too. Most interestingly, everything would be so vivid thatyou would never doubt the existence of this setting or your body. Or if wesent to your brain the electrical correlates of senses such as seeing, hear-ing, and touching which you perceive while sitting at a table, your brainwould think of itself as a businessman sitting in his office. This imaginaryworld will continue so long as the stimulations keep coming from thecomputer. It will never become possible to understand that you consist ofnothing but your brain. This is because what is needed to form a worldwithin your brain is not the existence of a real world but rather the stim-uli. It is perfectly possible that these stimuli could be coming from an arti-ficial source, such as a recording device or a different kind of perceptionsource. Experiments carried out about this subject demonstrate this fact.

In the U.S.A., Dr. White from Cleveland Hospital, along with his col-leagues, all experts in electronics, performed a great feat in making“Cyborg” survive. What Dr. White succeeded in doing was isolating anape’s brain from his skull and feeding it with oxygen and blood. Thebrain, which was connected to an artificially produced “Heart LungMachine,” was kept alive for five hours. The device, called an ElectroEncephalogram, to which the isolated brain was connected, identifiedin E.E.G. records that the noises made in the surroundings were heardby this brain and that it reacted to them.15

As we have seen, it is quite possible that we perceive an externalworld through externally given artificial stimuli. The symbols you wouldperceive with your five senses are sufficient for this. Other than thesesymbols, there is nothing left of the external world.

It is indeed very easy for us to be misled into believing perceptions,without any material correlates, to be real. We often experience this feel-ing in our dreams, in which we experience events, see people, objects andsettings that seem completely real. However, they are all, without excep-tion, mere perceptions. There is no basic difference between the “dream”and the “real” world; both of them are experienced in the brain.

30

Who Is the Perceiver?

As we have related so far, there is no doubt that the world we think

we inhabit and know as the “external world” is perceived inside our

brain. However, here arises the question of primary importance. Is the

will that perceives all these perceptions the brain itself?

When we analyze the brain, we see that it is comprised of lipid and

protein molecules, which also exist in other living organisms. As is well

known, the essence of these proteins is, in fact, atoms. This means that

within the piece of meat we call our “brain,” there is nothing to observe

the images, to constitute consciousness, or to create the being we call

“myself.”

R. L. Gregory refers to a mistake people make in relation to the per-

ception of images in the brain:

There is a temptation, which must be avoided, to say that the eyes produce

pictures in the brain. A picture in the brain suggests the need of some kind

of internal eye to see it – but this would need a further eye to see its pic-

ture… and so on, in an endless regress of eyes and pictures. This is absurd.16

This is the very point that puts materialists, who do not hold any-

thing but matter to be true, in a quandary: to whom belongs “the eye

inside” that sees, that interprets what it sees and reacts?

Karl Pribram also focused on this important question, about who the

perceiver is, in the world of science and philosophy:

Philosophers since the Greeks have speculated about the "ghost" in the

machine, the "little man inside the little man" and so on. Where is the I -- the

entity that uses the brain? Who does the actual knowing? Or, as Saint Fran-

cis of Assisi once put it, "What we are looking for is what is looking". 17

Now, think of this: The book in your hand, the room you are in, in

brief, all the images in front of you are seen inside your brain. Is it the

atoms that see these images? Blind, deaf, unconscious atoms? How would

lifeless and unconscious atoms feel, how would they see? Why did some

atoms acquire this quality whereas others did not? Do our acts of think-

ing, comprehending, remembering, being delighted, being unhappy, and



everything else consist of the electrochemical reactions between these

atoms? No, the brain cannot be the will that performs all of these.

In previous sections, we have pointed out that our body is also

included in the collection of perceptions we call the “external world.”

Therefore, since our brain is also a part of our body, it is also a part of that

collection of perceptions. Since the brain itself is a perception, therefore, it

cannot be the will that perceives other perceptions.

In his book, The ABC of Relativity, Bertrand Russell focuses attention

on this subject by saying:

Of course, if matter in general is to be interpreted as a group of occur-

rences, this must apply also to the eye, the optic nerve and the brain.18

It is clear that the being that sees, hears, senses, and feels is a supra-

material being. For matter cannot think, feel, be happy or unhappy. It is

not possible to do all these with the body alone. Therefore, this being is

neither matter, nor image, but it is “alive.” This being relates to the

“screen” in front of it by using the image of our body.

An example about dreams will illuminate the subject further. Let us

imagine (in accordance with what has been said so far) that we see the

dream within our brain. In the dream, we will have an imaginary body,

an imaginary arm, an imaginary eye, and an imaginary brain. If during

our dream, we were asked, “Where do you see?” we would answer, “I see

in my brain.” If we were asked where our brain is and what it looks like,

we would hold our imaginary head on our imaginary body with our

imaginary hand and say, “My brain is a hunk of meat in my head weigh-

ing hardly more than a kilo.”

Yet, actually there is not any brain to talk about, but an imaginary

head and an imaginary brain. The seer of the images is not the imaginary

brain in the dream, but a “being” that is far “superior” to it.

We know that there is no physical distinction between the setting of

a dream and the setting we call real life. So when we are asked in the set-

ting we call real life the above question: “Where do you see?” it would be

just as meaningless to answer “in my brain” as in the example above. In

32

both conditions, the entity that sees and perceives is not the brain, which

is after all only a hunk of meat. Realizing this fact, Bergson said in his

book, Matter and Memory, in summary, that “the world is made up of

images, these images only exist in our consciousness; and the brain is

one of these images.”19

Therefore, since the brain is a part of the external world, there has to

be a will to perceive all these images. This being is the “soul.”

The aggregate of perceptions we call the “material world” is nothing

but a dream observed by this soul. Just as the bodies we possess and the

material world we see in our dreams have no reality, the universe we

occupy and the bodies we possess also have no material reality. The

famous British philosopher David Hume expresses his thoughts on this

fact:

For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always

stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or

shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time

without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the percep-

tion.20

The real being is the soul. Matter consists merely of perceptions

viewed by the soul. The intelligent beings that write and read these lines

are not each a heap of atoms and molecules and the chemical reactions

between them, but a “soul”.

The Real Absolute Being

All these facts bring us face to face with a very significant question.

If the thing we acknowledge to be the material world is merely comprised

of perceptions seen by our soul, then what is the source of these percep-

tions?

In answering this question, we must consider the following: matter

does not have a self-governing existence by itself. Since matter is a per-

ception, it is something "artificial." That is, this perception must have been

caused by another power, which means that it must have been created.


Moreover, this creation must be continuous. If there were not a continu-ous and consistent creation, then what we call matter would disappearand be lost. This may be likened to a television screen on which a pictureis displayed as long as the signal continues to be broadcast. So, whomakes our soul see the stars, the earth, plants, people, our bodies, and allelse that we see?

It is very evident that there is a Creator, Who has created the entirematerial universe, that is, the sum of perceptions, and continues His cre-ation ceaselessly. Since this Creator displays such a magnificent creation,He surely has eternal power and might.

This Creator introduces Himself to us. He sent down a book andthrough this book has described to us Himself, the universe, and the rea-son for our existence.

This Creator is God and the name of His book is the Qur’an. The facts that the heavens and the earth, that is, the universe is not

stable, that their presence is only made possible by God’s creating themand that they will disappear when He ends this creation, are all explainedin a verse as follows:

The brain is a collection of cells made up of protein and fat molecules. It is formedof nerve cells called neurons (left). It is certainly not neurons that constitute consciousness. When we examine the structure of neurons, we see atoms. (right)Unquestionably, it is impossible for unconscious atoms to create consciousness.There is no power in this piece of meat to observe images, to constitute consciousness, or to create the being we call "myself".

It is God Who sustains the heavens and the earth, lest they cease (to func-

tion): and if they should fail, there is none - not one - can sustain them

thereafter: Truly, He is Most Forbearing and Oft-Forgiving. (Surah Fatir:

41)

As we mentioned at the beginning, some people have no genuine

understanding of God and so they imagine Him as a being present some-

where in the heavens and not really intervening in worldly affairs. The

basis of this logic actually lies in the thought that the universe is an assem-

bly of matter and God is "outside" this material world, in a faraway place.

In some false religions, belief in God is limited to this understanding.

However, as we have considered so far, matter is composed only of

sensations. And the only real absolute being is God. That means that onlyGod exists; all things except Him are shadow beings. Consequently, it is

impossible to conceive of God as separate and outside this whole mass of

matter. For there is actually nothing such as matter in the sense of being.

God is surely "everywhere" and encompasses all. This reality is

explained in the Qur’an as follows;

God, there is no deity except Him, the Living, the Self-Sustaining. He is

not subject to drowsiness or sleep. Everything in the heavens and the

earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede with Him except by His permis-

sion? He knows what is before them and what is behind them but they

cannot grasp any of His knowledge save what He wills. His Footstool

encompasses the heavens and the earth and their preservation does not

tire Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent. (Surat al-Baqarah: 255)

That God is not bound by space and that He encompasses everything

is stated in another verse as follows:

To God belong the east and the west: Wherever you turn, there is the face

of God. For God is all-pervading, all-knowing. (Surat al-Baqarah: 115)

Since material beings are each a perception, they cannot see God; but

God sees the matter He created in all its forms. In the Qur’an, this is stat-

ed thus: "No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision."(Surat al-An'am: 103)

That is, we cannot grasp God’s being with our eyes, but God has



thoroughly encompassed our inside, outside, looks and thoughts. For this

reason, God says that "He controls hearing and sight" (Surah Yunus: 31).

We cannot utter a single word without His knowledge, nor can we even

take a breath.

While we watch these sensory perceptions in the course of our lives,

the closest being to us is not any one of these sensations, but God Himself.

The following verse of the Qur’an asserts this reality: "It is We Who cre-

ated man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him:

for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein." (Surah Qaf: 16) When

a person thinks that his body is made up only of "matter," he cannot com-

prehend this important fact. If he takes his brain to be "himself," then the

place that he accepts to be the outside is 20-30 cm away from him. Accord-

ing to this reasoning, nothing can be nearer to him than his jugular vein.

However, when he understands that there is nothing such as matter, and

that everything is imagination, notions such as outside, inside, far or near,

lose their meaning. God has encompassed him and He is "infinitely close"

to him.

God informs men that He is "infinitely close" to them in the verse:

"When My servants ask you about Me, tell them I am indeed close (to

them)." (Surat al-Baqarah: 186). Another verse relates the same fact: "We

have told you that your Lord encompasses all men." (Surat al-Isra': 60).

However, man is misled in thinking that the being closest to him is him-

self. God, in truth, is even closer to us than ourselves.

He has called our attention to this point in the verse: "Why is it that

when it (the soul) comes up to the throat, and you at that time look on,

We are nearer to him than you, but you do not see this." (Surat al-

Waqi'ah: 83-85). Indeed, someone on his death bed, or lying ill can think,

although greatly mistaken, that at that moment, the nearest being to him

is his doctor beside him, or his mother holding his hand, or one of his dear

ones hugging him. However, as also related in the verse, God is nearer to

him than everyone else. Yet, people go through life unaware of this phe-

nomenal fact, because they do not see it with their eyes.

36

The only conclusion to be derived from the sum total of the facts pre-

sented here is that the only and real and absolute being is God. With His

knowledge, God encompasses man, who is a shadow being, as well as

everything else: "Your god is God alone, there is no god but Him. He

encompasses all things in His knowledge." (Surah Ta Ha: 98). In anoth-

er verse of the Qur’an, God warns people against such heedlessness:

What! Are they in doubt about the meeting with their Lord? What! Does

He not encompass all things? (Surah Fussilat: 54)

Quite the reverse is true of man, who is nothing but a shadow being,

and who is so wholly dependent on God, that it is impossible for him to

have any independent power or will: "You will not will unless God

wills." (Surat al-Insan: 39). Another verse showing that everything we

experience takes place under God’s control runs: "God has created you

and what you do!" (Surat as-Saffat: 96). In the Qur’an, this reality is stat-

ed at many points and with the verse "You did not throw, when you

threw, it was God who threw" (Surat al-Anfal: 17), it is emphasized that

no act is independent of God. Since the human being is a shadow being,

he himself does not perform the act of throwing. However, God gives this

shadow being the feeling of a "self." In reality, God performs all acts. If

someone takes the acts he does as his own, thinks he himself does every-

thing he does, moreover, supposes that he is a being with independent

power and puts his trust in this power, he evidently means to deceive

himself. For obviously, man is a being totally under the control of God.

This is the reality. The individual may not want to concede this and

may think of himself as a being independent of God; but this does not

change a thing. Of course his unwise denial is again subject to God’s will

and desire. In the Qur’an, this fact is addressed thus:

It is other than the religion of God that you desire, when everything in the

heavens and earth, willingly or unwillingly, submits to Him? To Him you

will all be returned. (Surat Al 'Imran: 83)



God is All-Knowing

God’s attribute of "al-Muhit" means "He Who encompasses all."

Since God encompasses everything, He is the One Who knows everything

people live through. God created all feelings such as pain, soreness, love,

pleasure, sadness, and happiness, and therefore God knows all of them

very well. Because He knows, He creates and makes His slaves experience

them as much as He wills. A point has to be made clear here: God is total-

ly away from these pains and deficiencies. Another attribute of God in the

Qur’an is al-Quddus, which means "He Who is unblemished by any error

or forgetfulness, and Who is free of imperfection or any kind of defect."

All imperfections belong to man.

One of the attributes of God mentioned in the Qur’an is al-Muta’ali,

which means "He Who is higher than any action, manner or condition,

and any thought that any being may have." This means that God encom-

passes all things everywhere and knows the innermost secrets of every-

thing. This is "knowing" in the real sense. In order to appreciate the

almightiness and omnipotence of God, one needs to have a better grasp

of this subject. That God knows the pains, soreness, and every feeling we

experience makes us once again understand the fact that God is nearer to

us than our jugular vein. God sees man everywhere. Even when he is

alone in a sheltered, hidden, secret place, where no one sees him, even

when he thinks that he is working at something very secret, God sees him.

In the Qur’an, it is stated that God is All-Aware.

Do they not know that God knows their secrets and their private talk, and

that God is the Knower of all unseen things? (Surat at-Tawbah: 78)

God hears all words: even at a time when an individual thinks that

he is whispering secretly behind barred doors, and solid walls, God hears

him. God knows what is in his heart, what he hides from everyone else,

as well as those things in his subconscious, of which even he himself is

unaware. In the Qur’an, these facts are emphasized:

Though you speak out loud, He knows your secrets and what is even

more concealed. (Surah Ta Ha: 7)

38

Everything That You Possess Is Intrinsically

Illusory

As is quite evident, it is a logical, scientific fact that the "external

world" has no material reality and that it is a collection of images perpet-

ually presented to our soul by God. Nevertheless, people usually do not

include, or rather do not want to include, everything in the concept of the

"external world."

Think about this issue sincerely and boldly. You will realize that your

house, furniture, car – which has perhaps been recently bought, – office,

jewellery, bank account, wardrobe, spouse, children, colleagues, and

everything else that you possess are, in fact, included in this imaginary

external world projected to you. Everything you see, hear, or smell – in

short – perceive with your five senses around you, is a part of this "imag-

inary world": the voice of your favourite singer, the hardness of the chair

you sit on, a perfume whose smell you like, the sun that keeps you warm,

a flower with beautiful colours, a bird flying in front of your window, a

speedboat moving swiftly on the water, your fertile garden, the comput-

er you use at your job, or your hi-fi that has the most advanced technolo-

gy in the world…

This is the reality, because the world is only a collection of images

created to test man. People are tested all throughout their limited lives

with perceptions having no reality. These perceptions are intentionally

presented as appealing and attractive. This fact is mentioned in the

Qur’an:

Fair in the eyes of people is the love of things they covet: Women and

sons; heaped-up hoards of gold and silver; horses branded for blood and

excellence; and wealth of cattle and well-tilled land. Such are the posses-

sions of this world’s life; but in nearness to God is the best of the goals to

return to. (Surat Al 'Imran: 14)

Most people cast their religion away because they have succumbed

to the lure of property, wealth, heaped-up hoards of gold and silver, dol-

lars, jewellery, bank accounts, credit cards, wardrobes full of clothes, lat-


est-model cars, in short, all the forms of prosperity that they either pos-sess or strive to possess. They concentrate only on this world while for-getting the hereafter. They are deceived by the "fair and alluring" face ofthe life of this world, and fail to keep up prayer (salat), or give charity tothe poor, or perform the kind of worship that will make them prosper inthe hereafter. They say instead, "I have things to do," "I have ideals," "Ihave responsibilities," "I do not have enough time," "I have tasks to com-plete" or "I will do it later." They consume their lives trying to prosperonly in this world. In the verse, "They know but the outer things in thelife of this world: but of the end of things they are heedless" (Surat ar-Rum: 7), this misconception is defined.

The fact we describe in this chapter, namely, that everything is animage, is very important in that its implications render all lusts andboundaries meaningless. The verification of this fact makes it clear thateverything people value, possess or toil to possess – wealth acquired as aresult of greed, children of whom they boast, spouses whom they consid-er closest to them, friends, their own pampered bodies, the social status

If one ponders deeply on all that is said here, one will soon realise this amazing, extraordinary situation by oneself: that all the events in the world are mere imagination…

which they believe to be a form of superiority, the schools they haveattended, the holidays on which they have been – is nothing but an illu-sion. Therefore, all the effort, the time spent, and the satisfaction of greed,prove unavailing.

This is why some people unwittingly make fools of themselves whenthey boast of their wealth and properties, or of their "yachts, helicopters,factories, holdings, manors, and lands" as if they really existed. Thosewell-to-do people who ostentatiously sail in their yachts, show off theircars, and keep talking about their wealth, suppose that their posts rankthem higher than everyone else, try to make a spectacle of themselveswith their dresses, build their entire lives upon such passions and com-petitions, and keep thinking that they are successful because of all this,should actually think about the state they will find themselves in oncethey realize that success is nothing but an illusion.

These scenes repeat themselves likewise in dreams. In their dreams,too they have houses, fast cars, extremely precious jewels, rolls of dollars,and loads of gold and silver. In their dreams, they are also positioned inhigh ranks, own factories with thousands of workers, possess power torule over many people, and dress in clothes that make everyone admirethem. But just as the dreamer would be ridiculed for boasting about thepossession he had in his dreams, so would the wide-awake person beequally ridiculed for boasting of the images he sees in this world. Forwhat he sees in his dreams and in this world are both mere images in hismind. Certainly, this fact has to be thought over. As stated in the follow-ing verse, those who realize this fact will be successful:

Clear insights have come to you from your Lord. Whoever sees clearly,

does so to his own benefit. Whoever is blind, it is to his own detriment. I

am not here as your keeper. (Surat al-An'am: 104)

Similarly, the way people react to the events they experience in theworld will make them feel ashamed when they realize the reality. Thosewho fight fiercely with each other, rave furiously, swindle, take bribes,commit forgery, lie, selfishly withhold their money, do wrong to people,beat and curse others, rage aggressively, are full of passion for office and



rank, are envious, and show off, will be disgraced when they realize that

they have done all of this in a dream world.

Since God creates all these images, the Ultimate Owner of everything

is God alone. This fact is stressed in the Qur’an:

But to God belong all things in the heavens and on earth: And He it is that

encompasses all things. (Surat an-Nisa': 126)

It is great foolishness to cast religion away for the sake of imaginary

passions and thus lose the eternal life. Moreover, it will lead one to ever-

lasting misfortunes. God predicts the state of the willfully irreligious as

follows:

…What they achieved here will come to nothing. What they did will

prove to be null and void. (Surah Hud: 16)

As stated in the above verse, both their passions and greed will

prove to be null and void, and the things they thought they possessed will

be lost in the face of this fact; they will not be of any use, and will become

worthless.

At this stage, one point should be understood. It is not maintained

here that "the possessions and wealth you have with which you are being

stingy, and your children, spouses, friends, and rank will vanish sooner or

later, and therefore do not have any meaning," but that "all the posses-

sions you seem to have do not exist; they are merely dreams composed of

images which God shows you to test you." As you see, there is a big dif-

ference between the two statements. If the former statement were accept-

ed at face value, the individual might be misled into thinking that all

these things, people, relationships and worldly status actually existed,

albeit temporarily, and he might still work with greed to possess them.

But given the latter statement, indicating the true state of affairs, that is,

of everything being imaginary, any individual who displayed greed for

this purpose would be disgraced and also suffer an unprecedented loss.

Although one does not want to acknowledge this right away and

would rather deceive oneself by assuming everything one has truly exists,

one is finally to die and in the hereafter everything will be clear when we

42

are recreated. On that day, "sharp is one’s sight" (Surah Qaf: 22) and we

will see everything much more clearly. However, if we have spent our

lives chasing after imaginary aims, we are going to wish we had never

lived this life and will say: "Ah! Would that Death had made an end of

me! Of no profit to me has been my wealth! And I am bereft of all my

power!" (Surat al-Haqqah: 27-29)

What a wise man should do, on the other hand, is to try to under-

stand the greatest reality of the universe here in this world, while he still

has time. Otherwise, he will spend all his life running after dreams and

face a grievous penalty at the end. In the Qur’an, the final state of those

people who run after illusions (or mirages) in this world and forget their

Creator, is stated as follows:

As for the unbelievers, their deeds are like a mirage in the sandy desert,

which the man parched with thirst mistakes for water; until he comes up

to it, and then finds it to be nothing: But he finds God ever with him, and

God will pay him back in full: and God is swift in His reckoning. (Surat

an-Nur: 39)

What is the Difference Between the World in

Dreams and the World We Perceive Now?

For human beings, reality is all that can be touched with the hand

and seen with the eye. Above, we mentioned that our sense organs mis-

lead us and remarked that, scientifically, we can never reach the reality of

the external world. The universe of perceptions which we inhabit can be

explained also by using the dream analogy. In your dreams, you can also

"touch with your hand and see with your eye", but in reality, you have

neither hand nor eye, nor is there anything that can be touched or seen.

There is no material reality outside your brain that makes these things

happen. You are simply being deceived.

What is it that separates real life and dreams from one another? Is it

that real life is continuous, and dreams are unconnected, or rather that

there are different cause-effect relationships in dreams? Basically, these



are not important differences. Ultimately, both forms of living are broughtinto being within the brain.

If we are able to live easily in an unreal world during our dreams, thesame can equally be true for the world we live in while awake. When wewake up from a dream, we can never be sure that we have not entered alonger dream called "real life." The reason we consider our dream a fancyand the world "real" is only a product of our habits and prejudices.

This suggests that we may well be awoken from this life on earth,which we think we are living right now, just as we are awoken from adream. This point is very important and definitely needs to be reflectedupon.

Therefore, it is useful to think about the example of dreams moredeeply. A person can experience very realistic events in dream. He can rolldown the stairs and break his leg, have a serious car accident, become pin-ioned under a bus, or eat a cake and be satiated. Similar events to thoseexperienced in our daily lives are also experienced in dreams with thesame persuasive sense of their reality, and arousing the same feelings inus. This shows us that perceptions such as taste, touch, or the feeling ofhardness can never be evidence of the substantial existence of matter, forthese feelings are experienced in dreams with the same sharpness. How-ever, materialists who hold matter to be the absolute being totally fail inunderstanding this point. In order to prove the existence of matter, theyquote examples similar to those above. According to their crooked rea-soning, their feeling pain when they give a kick to a stone, or are slappedin the face, their feeling full when they eat a cake, or people’s runningaway seeing a bus on the highway so as not to be knocked down by it areevidence of the existence of matter. The point they fail to understand isthat the pain they feel when they give a kick to a stone, the taste they getwhen they eat a cake, and the perceptions of hardness and physical agonyperceived during a bus crash also form in the brain.

A person who dreams that he has been knocked down by a bus canopen his eyes in a hospital, again in his dream, and understand that he isdisabled, but it is all a dream. He can also dream that he dies in a car

44

crash, angels of death take his soul, and his life in the hereafter begins.(This latter event is experienced in the same manner in this life, which,just like the dream, is a perception.)

This person perceives very sharply the images, sounds, feelings ofsolidity, light, colours, and all other feelings pertaining to the event heexperiences in his dream. The perceptions of his dream are as natural asthe ones in "real" life. The cake he eats in his dream satiates him, althoughit is a mere dream-sense perception, because being satiated is also adream-sense perception. However, in reality, this person is lying in hisbed at that moment. There are no stairs, traffic, or buses to consider. Thedreaming person experiences and sees perceptions and feelings that donot exist in the external world. The fact that in our dreams, we experience,see, and feel events with no physical correlates in the "external world"very clearly reveals that the "external world" of our waking lives also con-sists entirely of mere perceptions. Be it in a dream, or in daily life, allthings that are seen, experienced and felt are perceptions.

Let us consider the bus crash example: If the crushed person’s nervestravelling from his five senses to his brain, were connected to another per-son’s brain with a parallel connection, at the moment the bus hit him, itwould also hit that person sitting at home at the same time. All the feel-ings experienced by the victim of the accident would be experienced bythe person sitting at home, just like the same song being listened to fromtwo different loudspeakers connected to the same tape recorder. That per-son would feel, see, and experience the braking of the bus, the impact ofthe bus on his body, the images of a broken arm and blood, fractures,images of his entering the operation room, the hardness of the plaster cast,and the feebleness of his arm.

All other persons connected in parallel to the man’s nerves wouldexperience the accident from beginning to end. If the man in the accidentfell into a coma, they would all fall into a coma. Moreover, if all the per-ceptions pertaining to the car accident were recorded, and if all these per-ceptions were transmitted to someone repeatedly, the bus would knockhim down many times.



So, which one of the buses hitting those people is real? The material-

ist philosophy has no consistent answer to this question. The right answer

is that they all experience the car accident in all its details in their own

minds.

The same principle applies to the cake and stone examples. If the

nerves of the sense organs of the person who felt satiety and fullness of

his stomach after eating a cake, were connected in parallel, to a second

person’s brain, the latter would also feel full when the former ate the cake

46

For you, reality is all that can be touched with the hand and seen with the eye.In your dreams you can also "touch with your hand and see with your eye", butin reality, then you have neither hand nor eye, nor is there anything that can betouched or seen. There is no material reality that makes these things happenexcept your brain. You are simply being deceived.What is it that separates real life and dreams from one another? Ultimately, bothforms of living are brought into being within the brain. If we are able to liveeasily in an unreal world during our dreams, the same can equally be true forthe world we live in while awake. When we wake up from a dream, there is nological reason not to think that we have entered a longer dream called "real life".The reason we consider our dream a fancy and the world 'real' is only aproduct of our habits and prejudices. This suggests that we may well be awoken from the life on earth, which we think we are living right now, just as we are awoken from a dream.

and was satiated. If the nerves of the materialist, who felt pain in his foot

when he delivered a sound kick to a stone, were connected in parallel to

a second person, the latter would feel the same pain.

So, which cake or which stone is the real one? The materialist phi-

losophy again falls short of giving a consistent answer to this question.

The correct and consistent answer is this: both persons have eaten the

cake in their minds and are satiated; both persons have fully experienced

the moment of striking the stone in their minds.

In that case, it is not possible for man to transcend his senses and

break free of them. As in the above-mentioned examples, it is possible to

make a man’s soul be exposed to all kinds of representations of physical

events although they have no physical body and no material existence

and lack material weight. It is not possible for a human being to realize

this, for he assumes these three-dimensional images to be real and is cer-

tain of their existence because, like everybody else, he depends on his sen-

sory organs. It is also clearly revealed in these examples that there is no

clear-cut difference between dreams and real life. Therefore, we can never

be sure that the life we live now is not a kind of dream.

Why Can’t They Understand?

The subject we have explained so far is one of the greatest truths that

you will ever be told in your lifetime. Proving that the whole material

world is in reality a "shadow being", this subject is the key to compre-

hending the being of God and His creation, and to understanding that He

is the only absolute being.

One who understands this subject realizes that the world is not the

sort of place it is thought by most people to be. The world is not an

absolute place with a true existence as supposed by those who wander

aimlessly about the streets, get into fights in pubs, show off in luxurious

cafés, spend their lives in vain talk, brag about their property, are caught

up in their miserly and selfish passions or who dedicate their lives to hol-

low aims. The world is only a collection of perceptions, an illusion. All of



the people we have alluded to above, no matter what their posts andranks are, are only shadow beings who watch these perceptions in theirminds; yet, remain unaware of this.

The truths explained here are as definite as a law of physics or achemistry formula. When necessary, people can solve even the most diffi-cult math problems, and grasp many subjects which seem very hard tounderstand. Yet when the same people are told that matter is nothing butan image formed in the brain, they are reluctant to accept this. This is avery "extreme" case of mindlessness. Grasping the subject in question isas easy as answering such questions as "What is two times two?" or "Howold are you?" Or as easy as someone drinking a glass of water would findit to answer the question: "What are you drinking the water out of?" Forthese are facts definitely proven by science today.

In the field of medicine, if you ask a specialist how the eye works, hecan explain to you the technical subjects we have described here in fulldetail. He, however, does not admit to what is self-evident in consequenceof these technical data; he never concedes that "yes, the image is formedin my brain, so it is impossible for me to have a certain idea of what ishappening outside." Or if you ask that person, "Where is the moon?" hewill look up and say, "The moon is millions of kilometres above." Yet hecan never say: "The moon is actually in my brain." He pleads ignorance ofit; because to accept this fact or to pronounce it openly reveals anothervery important fact for him. Since everything is an illusion formed in thebrain and presented to him, then there is a Creator Who makes him watchthese images.

This is the reason why one who has spent long years in education,and has become known as having the greatest degree of specialization inhis own field, from whom many take counsel on a variety of subjects, andwho vaunts his intelligence, cannot understand such an obvious reality.This subject reminds such people of religion, calls to mind the being ofGod, His endless might dominating everything, and that He is the soleOwner of all things. For this reason, Satan influences people not to thinkabout this subject. As stated in the Qur’an with reference to the people of

48

Saba, "…Satan has made their actions seem good to them and debarredthem from the right path so they are not guided to the worship of God."(Surat an-Naml: 24), Satan keeps people at a distance from this fact.

Those influenced by Satan’s suggestions are degraded, being unableto see the plain truth before them. Their situation is like that of one whoclaims that the images on the movie screen "really exist," and who evenattempts to intervene in the doings of these images. It is no different fromsomeone stretching out his hand to a plate of food on the TV, taking it tobe real. It is evident that the condition of those who try to escape from thissubject is a "very extreme state of heedlessness." Indeed, this heedlessnessstems from their having been, as disbelievers, bereft of wisdom by God.In the Qur’an, it is stated that disbelievers "have hearts they do notunderstand with. They have eyes they do not see with. They have earsthey do not hear with. Such people are like cattle. No, they are even fur-ther astray! They are the unaware." (Surat al-A'raf: 179)

The message in the verse is a miracle of the Qur’an. In the Qur’an,God refers to the existence of people who are highly knowledgeable, whocan grasp technical subjects, yet who cannot grasp the apparent truthabout the real nature of matter despite its having been described to themin various ways. Another verse on this subject predicts their fate:

As for those who disbelieve, it makes no difference to them whether you

warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe. God has sealed up

their hearts and hearing and over their eyes is a blindfold. They will have

a terrible punishment. (Surat al-Baqarah: 6-7)

Now, God allows some people to grasp this subject. Yet, those whorun away from the truth today must know that this scientific fact will, ina few years’ time, gain general acceptance in all parts of the world. Peo-ple will certainly come to understand that they live in an imaginary worldput on for them like a play. At a time God has determined, He will removethe veil from the eyes of people and show them that He is the nearestBeing to them, that everything save His Being is a "dream." People willfully comprehend this fact about the secret beyond matter, as well as otherfacts communicated in the Qur’an.



Conclusion

The subject we have explained so far is one of the greatest truths that

you will ever be told in your lifetime.

You can explore beyond this point by dint of personal reflection. For

this, you have to concentrate upon, devote your attention to, and ponder

on the way you see the objects around you and the way you feel their

touch. If you think heedfully, you can feel that the intelligent being that

sees, hears, touches, thinks, and reads this book at this moment is only a

soul, who watches the perceptions called "matter" on a screen. One who

comprehends this is considered to have moved away from the domain of

the material world that deceives a major part of humanity, and to have

entered the domain of true existence.

This reality has been understood by a number of theists and philoso-

phers throughout history. Islamic intellectuals such as Imam Rabbani,

Muhyiddin Ibn al-’Arabi and Mawlana Jami realized this from the signs

of the Qur’an and by using their reason. Some Western philosophers like

George Berkeley have grasped the same reality through reason. Imam

Rabbani wrote in his Maktubat (Letters) that the whole material universe

is an "illusion and supposition (perception)" and that the only absolute

being is God:

God… The substance of these beings which He created is mere nothing-

ness… He created all in the sphere of senses and illusions… The existence

of the universe is in the sphere of senses and illusions, and it is not materi-

al… In reality, there is nothing on the outside except the Glorious Being,

(Who is God).21

Imam Rabbani explicitly stated that all images presented to man are

only illusions, and that they have no originals on the "outside".

This imaginary cycle is portrayed in imagination. It is seen to the extent that

it is portrayed, yet, with the mind’s eye. On the outside, it seems as if it is

seen with the head’s eye. However, this is not the case. It has neither a des-

ignation nor a trace on the outside. There is no circumstance to be seen. Even

the face of a person reflected in a mirror is like that. It has no constancy on

the outside. No doubt, both its constancy and image are in the IMAGINA-

50

TION. God knows best.22

Mawlana Jami stated the same fact, which he discovered by follow-ing the signs of the Qur’an and by using his wit: "All phenomena of theuniverse are senses and illusions. They are either like reflections in mir-rors or shadows."

However, the number of those who have understood this factthroughout history has always been limited. Great scholars such as ImamRabbani have written that it might not be wise to tell this fact to the mass-es, because most people are not able to grasp it.

In the age in which we live, this has been established as an empiricalfact by the body of evidence put forward by science. The fact that the uni-verse is a shadow being is described for the first time in history in such aconcrete, clear, and explicit way.

For this reason, the 21st century will be a historical turning point,when people will generally comprehend the divine realities and be led incrowds to God, the only Absolute Being. The materialistic creeds of the19th century will be relegated to the trash-heaps of history, God’s beingand creating will be accepted, spacelessness and timelessness will beunderstood; humanity, in short, will cast aside the centuries-old veils,deceits and superstitions which have been confusing them.

It is not possible for this unavoidable course to be impeded by anyshadow being.


verything related so far demonstrates that "three-dimensionalspace" does not exist in reality, that it is a prejudice complete-ly founded on perceptions and that one leads one’s whole life

in "spacelessness." For there is no valid proof of the existence of a three-dimensional, material world. The universe we inhabit is a sum of imagesmade up of plays of light and shade. To assert the contrary would be tohold a superstitious belief far removed from reason and scientific truth.

This refutes the primary assumption of the materialist philosophy,the assumption that matter is absolute and eternal. The second assump-tion, upon which materialistic philosophy rests, is the supposition thattime is absolute and eternal. This is as superstitious as the first.

The Perception of Time

What we perceive as time is, in fact, a method by which one momentis compared to another. We can explain this with an example. Forinstance, when a person taps an object, he hears a particular sound. Whenhe taps the same object five minutes later, he hears another sound. He per-ceives that there is an interval between the first sound and the second,and he calls this interval "time." Yet at the time he hears the second sound,the first sound he heard is no more than a mental imagining. It is merelya bit of information in his memory. The person formulates the concept of"time" by comparing the moment in which he lives with what he has inhis memory. If this comparison is not made, there can be no concept oftime.

Similarly, the occupant of a room makes a comparison when he seessomeone enter through a door and sit in an armchair in the middle of theroom. By the time the newcomer sits in the armchair, the images relatedto the moments he opens the door, walks into the room, and makes hisway to the armchair are compiled as bits of information in his brain. Theperception of time occurs when he compares the man sitting in the arm-chair with those bits of information.

In brief, time comes to exist as a result of the comparison madebetween some illusions stored in the brain. If man did not have memo-

53


ry, his brain would not make such interpretations and he would never

therefore have formed the concept of time. The only reason why someone

determines himself to be thirty years old is because he has accumulated

information pertaining to those thirty years in his mind. If his memory

did not exist, then he would not think of the existence of such a preceding

period, and he would only experience the single "moment" in which he

lives — which is a very important point.

The Scientific Explanation of Timelessness

Let us try to clarify the subject by quoting various scientists’ and

scholars’ explanations of the subject. Regarding the subject of time flow-

ing backwards, the famous intellectual and Nobel laureate professor of

genetics, François Jacob, states the following in his book Le Jeu des Possi-

bles (The Possible and the Actual):

Films played backwards make it possible for us to imagine a world in

which time flows backwards. A world in which milk separates itself from

the coffee and jumps out of the cup to reach the milk-pan; a world in which

light rays are emitted from the walls to be collected in a trap (gravity center)

instead of gushing out from a light source; a world in which a stone slopes

to the palm of a man by the astonishing cooperation of innumerable drops

of water which enable the stone to jump out of water. Yet, in such a world in

which time has such opposite features, the processes of our brain and the

way our memory compiles information, would similarly be functioning

backwards. The same is true for the past and future and the world will

appear to us exactly as it currently appears.23

Since our brain is accustomed to a certain sequence of events, the

world does not operate as is related above and we assume that time has

always flowed forward. However, this is a decision reached in the brain

and is relative. Had the bits of information in our memory been arranged

as in films played backwards, for us, the flow of time would be as in these

films played backwards. In this situation, we would start to perceive the

past as the future, and the future as the past, and live our lives in a total-

ly opposite sequence.

54

In reality, we can never know how time flows or even whether it

flows or not. This is an indication of the fact that time is not an absolute

fact, but just a sort of perception.

The relativity of time is a fact also verified by one of the most impor-

tant physicists of the 20th century, Albert Einstein. Lincoln Barnett writes

in his book The Universe and Dr. Einstein:

Along with absolute space, Einstein discarded the concept of absolute time

– of a steady, unvarying inexorable universal time flow, streaming from the

infinite past to the infinite future. Much of the obscurity that has surround-

ed the Theory of Relativity stems from man’s reluctance to recognize that

sense of time, like sense of colour, is a form of perception. Just as space is

Timelessness And The Reality Of Fate 55

PAST PRESENT

All events that seem to have taken place in the past, or which will take place inthe future, or are taking place in the present, have actually already takenplace and ended in the sight of God, Who is not bound by time orplace. In the same manner, eternity has also been experiencedand ended in the sight of God. Just like the concurrentexistence of the shots in a reel of film.

FUTURE


simply a possible order of material objects, so time is simply a possible

order of events. The subjectivity of time is best explained in Einstein’s own

words. "The experiences of an individual" he says, "appear to us arranged in

a series of events; in this series the single events which we remember

appear to be ordered according to the criterion of ‘earlier’ and ‘later’. There

exists, therefore, for the individual, an I-time, or subjective time. This in

itself is not measurable. I can, indeed, associate numbers with the events, in

such a way that a greater number is associated with the later event than with

an earlier one."24

Einstein himself pointed out, as quoted in Barnett’s book: "Space and

time are forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from con-

sciousness than can our concepts of colour, shape, or size." According to

the Theory of General Relativity: "Time has no independent existence

apart from the order of events by which we measure it."25

Since time is based on perception, it depends entirely on the per-

ceiver and is therefore relative.

The speed at which time flows differs according to the references we

use to measure it, because there is no natural clock in the human body to

indicate precisely how fast time passes. As Lincoln Barnett wrote: "Just as

there is no such thing as colour without an eye to discern it, so an instant

or an hour or a day is nothing without an event to mark it."26

The relativity of time is plainly experienced in dreams. Although

what we see in our dreams seems to last for hours, in fact, it only lasts for

a few minutes, and even a few seconds.

Let us think about an example to clarify the subject further. Let us

assume that we were put in a room with a single specially designed win-

dow and we were kept there for a certain period. A clock in the room

would allow us to see the amount of time that had passed. At the same

time, we are able to see from the window of the room the sun rising and

setting at certain intervals. A few days later, the answer we would give to

the question about the length of time we had spent in the room would be

based both on the information we had collected by looking at the clock

from time to time and on the computation we had made by referring to

56


how many times the sun had risen and set. Suppose, we estimate that wespent three days in the room. However, if the person who put us in thatroom said that we spent only two days there and that the sun we had seenfrom the window was produced artificially by a simulation machine andthat the clock in the room was regulated specially to work faster, then thecalculation we had done would have nomeaning.

This example confirms that the informa-tion we have about the rate of the passage oftime is based on relative references.

In the same manner, the fact that every-one perceives the flowing speed of time dif-ferently under different situations is evi-dence that time is but a psy-chological perception. Forinstance, when you have tomeet a friend, a 10-minutedelay on his part wouldseem to you like an inter-minable, or at least a verylong time. Or for a sleeplessperson who has to wake upto go to school or work, an

Time is apsychologicalperception. It

can be perceiveddifferently by

different peoplein different

circumstances.


extra ten-minute sleep may seem very long. He may even think that hehas had all his sleep in these ten minutes. In some circumstances, just theopposite happens. As you would remember from your school years, aftera forty-minute lesson which seems to last for centuries, a ten minutesbreak may seem to pass very quickly.

The relativity of time is a scientific fact also proven by scientificmethodology. Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity maintains that thespeed of time changes depending on the speed of the object and its posi-tion in the gravitational field. As speed increases, time is shortened andcompressed: it slows down as if coming to the point of "stopping."

Let us explain this with an example given by Einstein. Imaginetwins, one of whom stays on earth while the other goes travelling in spaceat a speed close to that of light. When he comes back, the traveller will seethat his brother has grown much older than he has. The reason is that timeflows much more slowly for the person who travels at speeds near thespeed of light. The same applies to a father travelling in space in a rocket,the speed of which is close to ninety-nine per cent of the speed of light,and his earth-bound son. If the father were twenty-seven years old whenhe set out and his son three; when the father came back to earth thirtyyears later (earth time), the son would be thirty-three years old while hisfather would be only thirty.27

This relativity of time is not causedby the deceleration or acceleration ofclocks, or the deceleration of a mechani-cal spring. It is rather the result of thedifferentiated operation periods of theentire system of material existence,which goes as deep as sub-atomic parti-cles. In other words, for the person expe-riencing it, the shortening of time is notexperienced as if acting in a slow-motionpicture. In such a setting where timeshortens, one’s heartbeats, cell replica-

58

Truly, a day in

the sight of your

Lord is like a

thousand years of

your reckoning.

(Surat al-Hajj:

47)

tions, and brain functions, etc, all operate more slowly. Nevertheless, the

person goes on with his daily life and does not notice the shortening of

time at all.

These facts revealed by the Theory of Relativity have been verified

quite a few times by various scientists. In his book Frontiers, Isaac Asimov

also states that it is 84 years since the publication of Einstein’s Theory of

Relativity, and each time the theory has been tested, Einstein has been

proved right once again.28

Relativity in the Qur’an

The conclusion to which we are led by the findings of modern sci-

ence is that time is not an absolute fact as supposed by materialists, but

only a relative perception. What is most interesting is that this fact,

undiscovered until the 20th century by science, was revealed to mankind

in the Qur’an fourteen centuries ago. There are various references in the

Qur’an to the relativity of time.

It is possible to see in many verses of the Qur’an the scientifically

proven fact that time is a psychological perception dependent on events,

setting, and conditions. For instance, a person’s entire life is a very short

time, as we are informed in the Qur’an:

On the Day when He will call you, you will answer His Call with words

of His Praise and Obedience, and you will think that you have stayed in

this world but a little while! (Surat al-Isra': 52)

And on the Day when He shall gather them together, it will seem to them

as if they had not tarried on earth longer than an hour of a day: they will

recognize each other. (Surah Yunus: 45)

Some verses indicate that people perceive time differently and that

sometimes people can perceive a very short period as a very lengthy one.

The following conversation of people held during their judgment in the

hereafter is a good example of this:

He will say: "What number of years did you stay on earth?" They will say:

"We stayed a day or part of a day, but ask those who keep account." He



will say: "Brief indeed was your sojourn, if you had only known!" (Surat

al-Mu'minun: 112-114)

In some other verses God states that time may flow at different paces

in different settings:

…Truly, a day in the sight of your Lord is like a thousand years of your

reckoning. (Surat al-Hajj: 47)

The angels and the spirit ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is

like fifty thousand years. (Surat al-Ma'arij: 4)

He rules all affairs from the heavens to the earth: in the end all will ascend

to Him in a single day, the measure of which is a thousand years by your

reckoning. (Surat as-Sajdah: 5)

These verses are clear expressions of the relativity of time. That this

finding, which was only recently understood by scientists in the 20th cen-

tury, was communicated to man 1,400 years ago in the Qur’an is an indi-

cation of the revelation of the Qur’an by God, Who encompasses the

whole of time and space.

Many other verses of the Qur’an reveal that time is a perception. This

is particularly evident in the stories. For instance, God kept the Compan-

ions of the Cave, a group of believers mentioned in the Qur’an, in a deep

sleep for more than three centuries. When they awoke, these people

thought that they had stayed in that state for only a little while, and could

not reckon how long they had slept:

Then We drew (a veil) over their ears, for a number of years, in the Cave,

(so that they could not hear). Then We wakened them up so that We might

know which of the two parties would best calculate the time that they had

tarried. (Surat al-Kahf: 11-12)

Such being their state, We roused them from sleep, so that they might

question each other. Said one of them, "How long have you stayed

(here)?" They said, "We have stayed perhaps a day, or part of a day." At

length they all said, "God alone knows best how long you have stayed

here…" (Surat al-Kahf: 19)

The situation described in the verse below is also evidence that time

60

is in truth a psychological perception.

Or (take) the instance of one who passed by a hamlet, all desolate and in

ruins. He said, "How shall God ever bring it to life now that is dead?" but

God caused him to die for a hundred years, then brought him back to life.

He said: "How long did you tarry thus?" He said: Perhaps a day or part of

a day." He said: "No, you have tarried thus a hundred years; but look at

your food and your drink; they show no signs of age; and look at your

donkey. And so that We may make of you a sign to the people, look fur-

ther at the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with

flesh." When this was shown clearly to him, he said: "I know that God has

power over all things." (Surat al-Baqarah: 259)

The above verse clearly emphasizes that God, Who created time, is

unbound by it. Man, on the other hand, is bound by time, which is

ordained by God. As in the verse, man is even incapable of knowing how

long he has slept. This being so, to assert that time is absolute (just as

materialists do in their distorted thinking) is very unreasonable.

Destiny

This relativity of time clears up a very important matter. Relativity is

so variable that a period appearing to us to be billions of years’ in dura-

tion may last only a second in another perspective. Moreover, an enor-

mous period of time, extending from the world’s beginning to its end,

may not even last a second but just an instant in another dimension.

This is the very essence of the concept of destiny – a concept that is

not well understood by most people, especially materialists who deny it

completely. Destiny is God’s perfect knowledge of all events past or

future. A majority of people question how God can already know events

that have not yet been experienced and this leads them to fail to under-

stand the authenticity of destiny. However, "events not yet experienced"

are only so for us. God is not bound by time or space, for He Himself has

created them. For this reason, past, future, and present are all the sameto God; for Him everything has already taken place and finished.

In The Universe and Dr. Einstein, Lincoln Barnett explains how the



Theory of General Relativity leads to this conclusion. According to Bar-nett, the universe can be "encompassed in its entire majesty only by acosmic intellect." The will that Barnett calls "the cosmic intellect" is thewisdom and knowledge of God, Who prevails over the entire universe.Just as we can easily see a ruler’s beginning, middle, and end, and all theunits in between as a whole, God knows the time we are subject to as if itwere a single moment right from its beginning to its end. People, howev-er, experience incidents only when their time comes and they witness thedestiny God has created for them.

It is also important to draw attention to the shallowness of the dis-torted understanding of destiny prevalent in our society. This distortedbelief about fate is a superstition that God has determined a "destiny" forevery man, but that people can sometimes change these destinies. Forinstance, people make superficial statements about a patient who returnsfrom death’s door, such as "he defeated his destiny." No one is able tochange his destiny. The person, who returned from death’s door, didn’tdie precisely because he was destined not to die at that time. It is, ironi-cally, the destiny of those people who deceive themselves by saying "Idefeated my destiny" that they should say so and maintain such a mind-set. In the verse, "…no living thing lives long or has its life cut shortwithout that being in a Book. That is easy for God" (Surah Fatir: 11), itis stated that all things happen as a matter of destiny. Destiny is the eter-nal knowledge of God and for God, Who knows time like a singlemoment and Who prevails over the whole of time and space; everythingis determined and finished in destiny.

We also understand from what He relates in the Qur’an that time isone for God: some incidents that appear to us to happen in the future arerelated in the Qur’an as if they had already taken place long before. Forinstance, the verses that describe the accounts that people must give toGod in the hereafter are related as events which occurred long ago:

And the trumpet is blown, and all who are in the heavens and all who are

on the earth swoon away, save him whom God wills. Then it is blown a

second time, and behold them standing waiting! And the earth shone

62

with the light of her Lord, and the Book is set up, and the prophets and

the witnesses are brought, and it is judged between them with truth, and

they are not wronged… And those who disbelieve are driven into hell in

troops… And those who feared their Lord are driven into Paradise in

troops... (Surat az-Zumar: 68-73)

Some other verses on this subject are:

And every soul came, along with a driver and a witness. (Surat al-Qaf: 21)

And the heaven is cloven asunder, so that on that day it is frail. (Surat al-

Haqqah: 16)

And because they were patient and constant, He rewarded them with a

garden and garments of silk. Reclining in the garden on raised thrones,

they saw there neither the sun’s excessive heat nor excessive cold. (Surat

al-Insan: 12-13)

And Hell is placed in full view for all to see. (Surat an-Nazi'at: 36)

But on this day the believers laugh at the unbelievers (Surat al-

Mutaffifin: 34)

And the sinful saw the fire and realised they are going to fall into it and

find no way of escaping from it. (Surat al-Kahf: 53)

As may be seen, occurrences that are going to take place after our

death (from our point of view) are related in the Qur’an as past events


Time is a concept totally dependent on the per-

ceiver. A certain period of time can seem long to

one person while it seems very short to another.

To understand who is right, various devices such

as a clock or a calendar are needed. Without

these, it is impossible to make a precise reckon-

ing about time.


already experienced. God is not bound by the relative time frame inwhich we are confined. God has willed these things in timelessness: peo-ple have already performed them and all these events have been livedthrough and are ended. He states in the verse below that every event, bigor small, is within the knowledge of God and recorded in a book:

In whatever business you may be, and whatever portion you may be recit-

ing from the Qur’an, and whatever deed you (mankind) may be doing, We

are witnesses of these things when you are deeply engrossed in them. Nor

is there hidden from your Lord so much as the weight of an atom on the

earth or in heaven. And there is neither the least and nor the greatest of

these things but is recorded in a glorious book. (Surah Yunus: 61)

The Gain of Believers

The issues discussed in this chapter, namely the truth underlyingmatter, timelessness, and spacelessness, are indeed extremely clear. Asexpressed before, these are definitely not any sort of philosophy or way ofthought, but scientific outcomes that are impossible to deny. In additionto its being a technical reality, the evidence also admits of no other ratio-nal or logical alternatives on this issue: the universe is an illusory entitywith all the matter composing it and all the creatures living in it. It is a col-lection of perceptions.

Materialists have a hard timeunderstanding this issue. The basicreason why materialists cannot com-prehend this subject is their subliminalfear of what they will face when theycomprehend it. Lincoln Barnett tells usthat some scientists "discerned" thispoint:

Along with philosophers’ reduction

of all objective reality to a shadow-

world of perceptions, scientists have

become aware of the alarming limita-

64

As for those who do

not believe in God's

Signs, God will not

guide them and

they will have a

painful punishment.

(Surat an-Nahl:

104)

tions of man’s senses.29

While the fact that matter and time are perceptions alarms material-ists, the opposite holds true for believers. People of faith become veryglad when they perceive the secret beyond matter, because this reality isthe key to all questions. With this key, all secrets are unlocked. One comeseasily to understand many issues that one previously had difficulty inaddressing.

As said before, the questions of death, paradise, hell, the hereafter,changing dimensions, and questions such as "Where is God?" "What wasbefore God?" "Who created God?" "How long will life in the grave last?""Where are heaven and hell?" and "Where do heaven and hell currentlyexist?" are easily answered. It will be understood with what kind of orderGod created the entire universe from out of nothing, so much so that, withthis secret, the questions of "when?" and "where?" become meaninglessbecause there are no time or space left. When spacelessness is grasped, itwill be understood that hell, heaven, and earth are all actually the sameplace. When timelessness is grasped, it will be understood that every-thing takes place at a single moment: nothing is waited for and time doesnot go by, because everything has already happened and finished. Thatmeans that in truth, eternity has already begun.

With this secret out in the open, the world becomes like heaven fora believer. All distressful material worries, anxieties, and fears vanish. Hegrasps that the entire universe has a single sovereign, that He changes theentire physical world as He pleases and that all one has to do is to turn toHim. He then submits himself entirely to God "to be devoted to His ser-vice." (Surat Al 'Imran: 35)

To comprehend this secret is the greatest gain in the world.


The Limited Memory of Man and the Endless

Memory of God

n the section related to timelessness, we mentioned that all ourinformation is in the memory. All the details pertaining toone’s life, everything one sees, hears, knows or feels are bits of

memorized information. So are our sensations about time. Now, we willdeal with the concept of memory more fully.

As mentioned in the preceding pages, we rely on our five senses tolive. We perceive only what our senses allow and we can never succeed instepping out of the boundaries of our senses. The time and space we livein is similarly perceived. If our brain cannot detect a being through ourfive senses, we simply say that that being has "disappeared." According-ly, for us, events, images or sensations, which are stored in our memory,exist, i.e., they are alive, while those that are forgotten no longer exist. Toput it another way, beings and events, which are not in our memory,become past events for us; they are simply dead and non-existent.

Yet, this holds true only for human beings; that is because it is onlyhuman beings who have a limited memory. The memory of God, on theother hand, is superior to everything. It is boundless and eternal. Yet onepoint deserves mention here: the concept "the memory of God" is usedonly for clarification purposes. It is definitely unlikely that any compari-son or similarity could be drawn between the memory of God and thememory of a man. God is surely the One Who creates everything fromnothingness and Who knows everything down to the last detail.

God introduces Himself in His book through His attributes. One ofthem is al- Hafiz (The Preserver), "He Who preserves all things in detail".Behind this attribute, there are very important hidden mysteries.

"The Mother of the Book"

In the sight of God, everything has taken place and finished in amoment. Since the beginning of time, everything has taken place at thissingle moment. In the sight of God, all information pertaining to this

67


moment is kept in a "Book." This "Main Book", or as the Qur’an calls it,

"The Mother of the Book", holds every bit of information about every-

thing:

And truly, it is in the Mother of the Book, in Our Presence, high in digni-

ty, and full of wisdom. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 4)

… with Him is the Mother of the Book. (Surat ar-Ra'd: 39)

We possess an all-preserving Book (Surah Qaf: 4)

Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or earth which is not

in a Clear Book. (Surat An-Naml: 75)

And the Book (of Deeds) will be placed (before you); and you will see the

sinful in great terror because of what is recorded therein; they will say,

"Alas for us! What a Book is this! It leaves out nothing small or great, but

takes account thereof!" They will find all that they did, placed before

them and your Lord will not wrong anyone at all. (Surat al-Kahf: 49)

In other verses, too, God declares that all the events one experiences,

all the thoughts one considers, and everything that befalls one are includ-

ed in this Book:

No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls without its being in

a Book before We bring it into existence: That is truly easy for God. (Surat

al-Hadid: 22)

Actually everything, living or non-living, which has existed since the

beginning of the universe and all events, which have happened, have all

been created by God. Consequently, God is cognizant of them all. To put

it in another way, "They all exist in the memory of God." In this sense, the

Mother of the Book is a manifestation of God's attribute, the al-Hafiz.

At this point, we come upon a striking fact: because the memory of

God is infinite, nothing existent in Him becomes lost. In other words, no

living being created by God vanishes, no flower fades, no drink finishes,

no period comes to an end, and no food is consumed. Every moment God

creates and every exact detail of everything are created in eternity and it

is "destined to eternity."

What then does this phrase "destined to eternity" mean?

68

Let us put this explanation in the following way: eternity has begun

for a being or an event by the time it is created. For instance, when a

flower is created, it is, in reality, destined not to disappear. That this being

ceases to become a part of one’s sensations and is erased from one's mem-

ory does not actually mean that it has vanished or died. Its state in the

sight of God is what actually matters. Furthermore, all states of this being,

be it its creation, all moments throughout its life or death, do exist in the

memory of God.

Upon all that is created, God bestows eternity. In other words, exist-

ing things have attained eternity by the time they are created. To have a

thorough grasp of this notion, however, one needs to reflect on all beings

and events individually. But, before proceeding with this subject, it would

be useful to stress the following fact: what has been stated so far, togeth-

er with the following, is no doubt the most important information one can

ever acquire in one’s lifetime. Most probably, many people are hearing

and reflecting on these facts about timelessness for the first time in their

lives. However, here is something important to keep in mind: God, in the

Qur’an, draws our attention to the fact that "only those who sincerely

turn to God" take heed. In other words, only those who truly seek the


Every moment pertaining to the collapse of these buildings is kept in the sight ofGod.


guidance of God and endeavour to appreciate His infinite might and His

greatness will heed these explanations and have a grasp of these facts.

People in Eternity

God, the al-Khalig (the Creator), is the One Who creates everything

from nothing and Who creates all things with the knowledge of what will

happen to them. As a manifestation of this attribute of God, by the time

He creates man in his mother's womb, eternity has begun for him. Surely,

man does not recall the stages of his own development in the womb.

However, every moment of this progress is present in the sight of God

and they quite definitely never disappear. Similarly, it is unlikely that

those initial phases and developmental stages of a human being remain in

his memory. Unless informed by God, man never manages to see these

moments. Some moments, however, remain only as memories. The

moments we experience are purely sensations presented to our soul. Yet,

in the infinite memory of God, everything remains as it is. Everything

people encounter in life, all details pertaining to one’s experiences, are all

created by God and they never disappear. As stated in the following

verse, everything down to its last detail remains in the sight of God.

".... This is so you will know that God knows what is in the heavens and

in the earth and God has knowledge of all things." (Surat al-Ma'idah: 97)

Let’s take the Prophet Adam as an example; all the details pertaining

to Adam’s creation in paradise before he was sent to earth, and the way

he was tested in paradise are all present in the Main Book. Adam’s initial

creation from clay, the angels’ prostration to him, as well as the moment

he was sent to earth and all the events he experienced are all vivid and

existing right now. None of them has disappeared, they all exist right now

in the sight of God, right down to their finest details.

As another example, let’s think of someone who is sorry for the

death of his cat. In fact, the moment the cat died and the period that that

same cat was still a kitten, in fact, its entire development from the moment

of its birth are kept vivid in the memory of God. Besides, the moments the

70

owner of this cat when he was at work or all the moments he did notspend with the cat are vividly stored in the sight of God. Consequently,death does not put an end to the existence of a being. For all eternity,everything exists in the sight of God.

Likewise, the moment the Prophet Solomon (Sulayman) caressed thelegs of his horse remains forever. The disappearance of these horsesbehind a curtain, the letter the Prophet Solomon sent to the Queen ofSaba, the moment this letter is read by the Queen and her soldiers, howthe Queen is welcomed to the palace of Solomon, the moment she thoughtthe ground of the palace to be a lake and the words of the Queen: "I donow submit in Islam, with Solomon, to the Lord of the Worlds." (Suratan-Naml: 44) currently exist and will continue to exist for all eternity.

These examples deserve a deeper and more detailed reflection.Assume that in the time of the Prophet Noah (Nuh), a man’s shirt becameunravelled and that after sometime a tailor sewed it up. This shirt, theloom on which it was initially woven, the state of the shirt before itbecame unravelled and the state in which it was sewed, and even everysecond the tailor spent on using the needle to sew this shirt, the processby which this shirt became utterly unusable, in brief, every stage, everysecond, every moment the shirt went through are retained in the sight ofGod. Right at this moment, this shirt is being woven, it is still sewn and itis still worn by its owner who lived in the time of the Prophet Noah.

Let’s also think about the antique clock in your home. All the stagesof manufacturing which took place 200 years ago along with the manu-facturing stages of a single wire in the clock, the moment its hour andminute hand were placed in it, the time this clock was sold to a shop anda customer purchased it, then the moment the clock went out of order andwas given to a rag-and-bone man, the moment your grand-grandfatherpurchased it from him and the time this clock was inherited first by yourgrand father and then your father, and then you, the way you placed theclock in your living room and watched it with admiration, briefly, everysecond in the history of the clock still remain in the sight of God. Inabsolute terms, this clock is working right at this moment, it has stopped



again right now, it is being placed by you in your living room and it ispurchased by your grandfather at this moment. All these happenings arepresent in the memory of God. Furthermore, not only what the clock wentthrough in the past but also its every future-related moment — surely thisis the "future" for you — is known by God and is preserved in His sight.The way this clock will be placed in your son’s home in forty years' timeand the collapse of the clock in three hundred years' time is also includedin the Mother of the Book.

The verse "He knows what is in front of them and what is behindthem. But their knowledge does not encompass Him." (Surah Ta ha: 110)refers to this fact (Surely God knows best). That is because God knowsevery being moment by moment. He knows their previous states as wellas their latter states, that is, in the words of the Qur'an, "what is in frontof them and what is behind them", at all stages. In another verse, Godonce again remindsus of the fact thateverything is withinHis Knowledge;

God - Him from

Whom nothing is

hidden, either on

earth or in heav-

en. (Surat Al

'Imran: 5)

72

For someone whocrosses the street from

one side to the other,there is a certain dis-

tance to be crossed. Aperson, however, who

looks at this streetfrom a bird's eye view,

feels no difficulty inseeing every point in

this street from oneend to another.

All Events Are Happening Right At This Moment!

An example will lead us to a better understanding of the fact that, inthe sight of God, every incident takes place in a single moment. Assumethat you have the picture of a big city spread in front of you. Streets, vehi-cles, buildings lined up side by side and people are clearly seen in this pic-ture. Let’s also imagine that there is a man trying to reach the other endof this city. From the point of view of this man, there is a certain distanceto be crossed from one end of this city to another in a definite time. It sure-ly takes some time for this man to reach his destination. It is unlikely thathe can be present at two distinct places at the same time. Yet, this is notthe case for a person like you who looks at this picture from the outside.At a first glance, you can see all the details of the city in a single moment.Moreover, you do not even need a specific time in which to do this.

This state outlined in the above example also holds true for peoplelike us confined to aspecific dimension.For us, reaching a des-tination becomes pos-sible only with thepassage of time andby expending someenergy. However, forGod, the Creator of alldimensions, it takesonly a single momentfor all events to occur.

The secondimportant fact is thesimultaneity of theseevents. As stated earli-er, in the sight of God,it is not possible to



talk about the notion of time; everything takes

place and ends in a single instant.

The Prophet Adam is created from clay

right at this moment, angels are prostrating

themselves before the Prophet Adam right

now. Likewise, he is now being sent to earth.

Furthermore, the "moment" we are talking

about is the "moment" you are reading these

lines.

Another example will further clarify this

explanation. Let’s think about the Prophet

Moses (Musa). The moment his mother decid-

ed to place the baby Moses in a box and set

him adrift on the water is still present; that

moment never disappeared and will continue

to exist forever. The moment the Prophet

Moses went to Pharaoh (Fir’awn) and con-

veyed the message of God to him still exists. In

reality, just at this moment, the Prophet Moses

is inviting Pharaoh to accept the religion of

truth. It is a fact that this is also the moment

the Prophet Moses is receiving the revelations

of God in the sacred valley of Tuwa. It is also

this instant the Prophet Moses is running

away from Pharaoh with his people, and at

this moment the Red sea opens a way for the

Prophet Moses and his people to walk across.

For all eternity, this moment when the sea

opens will remain and exist in God's memory.

Moment by moment, every picture above shows an

image of the vehicle crossing the bridge. A person

travelling by this vehicle supposes that a particular

period of time is spent in crossing the bridge.

However, we can see all of these pictures at a single

moment.

CM

YK

The moment Mary became preg-nant, the moment she gave birth toProphet Jesus ('Isa) under a date palm,the moment she returned to her people,the moment the Prophet Jesus talked tothem while he was still in his cradle, aswell as the moment he asked the ques-tion "Who will be my helpers to God?"to his disciples, and was resurrected byGod, are all happening right at thismoment. Indeed, not only the pastevents we are familiar with, but also theones of which we have no idea becausethey will happen in the future are, inreality, happening just at this moment.Every second the Prophet Jesus spent inthis world, his communication of themessage of God to his disciples, hisreturn to the earth, every speech hedelivered to call people to the path ofGod, his death and his resurrection on the Day of Judgement as well asthe moments he will be greeted by angels in his entrance to Heaven areactually happening at this moment.

The same also holds true for someone who lived 3,000 years ago. Aman who sat under a tree at noontime in 3000 BC, reflecting on a ladybirdperched on his finger and who therefore glorified the creation of God, isactually performing these actions right at this moment. Moreover, themoment the ladybird returned to its nest, as well as all the phases theladybird went through, from the moment it was in its egg to its death, areall kept in the memory of God. Consequently, all these happen in a singlemoment, at the very moment you are reading this passage.

All these examples indicate, once again, an important fact: None ofthe moments, none of the events, none of the living beings which existed


Each incident, each moment in

timelessness exists simultan

eously everywhere and will

continue to exist for all eternity.

None of the moments, none of

the events, none of the living

beings which existed in the past

have disappeared, nor will they

ever disappear. The Prophet

Noah is building the ark right at

this moment. The flood at the

time of Noah, too, is making its

impact right now; everything,

every moment related to the

flood is taking place during the

time you read these lines. These

are certainly not the incidents of

the past. The ongoing events, as

well as the aforementioned

incidents, all happen at the

same time, since each one of

them is fated to remain in the

memory of God for all eternity.

ETERNITY HAS ALREADY BEGUN76

in the past ceased to exist and they will never disappear. A film we watch

on television is recorded on a filmstrip and the moving pictures compos-

ing the film are not lost, whether we watch them or not. The same thing

also holds true for each and everything which has to do with life relating

to the past or future.

It is essential that this point should be well grasped. None of these

occurrences are similar to a memory, reminiscence or an image. They are

all vivid, everything being preserved as it is, and are just like the moment

we experience right now. We perceive them as incidents of the past sim-

ply because God does not present these perceptions to us. However,

whenever He wills, God may display these images to us, making us

believe that we truly experience them.

Past, Present and Future; they are All the Same

As has already been clarified, in the sight of God, all events, which

have occurred on earth so far, take place at a single moment. What the

Prophets Moses, Abraham (Ibrahim), Noah, Solomon, and Muhammad,

together with all the other prophets, went through is experienced in the

time we actually live in. Likewise, the experiences of our grandsons, of

their grandsons, as well as of all the people who will live until the Judge-

ment Day take place at one and the same moment. Among these people

those who believe are now in heaven, while the disbelievers are in hell,

suffering agonies.

What our Prophet went through, too, will remain in the sight of God

forever. These events are presented to our sensations as if they happened

1400 years ago. However, the truth is, right at this moment, our Prophet

Muhammad is ascending to heaven, right now, he is taking refuge in the

cave with his friend. Again, this is the moment our Prophet is communi-

cating the message of God to disbelievers. Actually these are not events,

which occurred in the past. On the contrary, they are incidents doomed to

exist for all eternity. The reason why we do not see, witness or experience

these events is simply because they are not present in our memory.


The same thing holds true for all the events that took place and thepeople who appeared on earth throughout history. Philosophers inancient Greece, those Sumerian people who invented cuneiform writing,Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen, artists of the renaissance period, scientistsof the 19th century, dictators of the 20th century and all other people, evenyour grandfather, his grandgrandfather and you are, in reality, living atthe same moment.

None of these events disappear; they continueto exist without changing. The Crusades, the greatmigration, World Wars I and II, though seeminglydistinct historical events, are actually events hap-pening right at this moment and they will continueto do so for all eternity. Likewise, Egyptian, ancientMexican, Greek and Anatolian civilisations all exist-ed at the same moment.

The rain, which watered the

All construction stages ofthese buildings as well as

their current state are inthe sight of God. Everydeed engaged in by the

former dwellers of thesebuildings is kept "right

now" in the sight of God. C

MY

KC

MY

K


field of a man who earned his living as a farmer in 1000 BC in

Mesopotamia, and the very moment this farmer got wet in this rain are

also present in the sight of God. A spider which wove a net in the branch-

es of a willow in the Akkadian period is, likewise, weaving this net just

now. The same spider, in a corner of this net, is also waiting for its prey

right at this moment. Furthermore, the very same moment you try to

visualise this spider in your mind, it is laying its eggs, collecting them on

its back, and also taking care of them. Also, at this very moment, the eggs

are cracking and its many offspring are hatching.

Nothing is left out or forgotten; the creation of God serves various

purposes. So, nothing disappears, vanishes or is wasted. That people do

not see, know or experience these various occurrences does not mean that

they are not happening right now. As God is unbounded by time, every-

thing has already taken place and finished in His sight. However, being

bound by time, the experiences of an individual appear to be arranged in

a series of events the order of which is apparently based on the criterion

of the past, the present and the future. However, as also mentioned earli-

er, "events not yet experienced" are not "yet experienced" for us. Past,

future and present are all the same to God. That is why God knows every-

thing. This fact is also stated in the following verse:

"My son!" (said Luqman), "Even if something weighs as little as a mus-

tard-seed and is inside a rock or anywhere else in the heavens or earth,

God will bring it out. God is All-Pervading, All-Aware." (Surah Luqman:

16)

Your Life is Also a Single Moment

To comprehend this fact, there is no reason to ponder merely upon

events or wander in the realms of history. One’s life, which he assumes to

be long, too, is nothing but a moment. That first moment you were born,

and the moment your mother embraced you for the first time still exist.

That single square or that event will continue to exist for all eternity

because it is stored in the memory of God. Yet, as stated earlier, because

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all the information that you have about the world isconveyed to you by your five senses, and because youhave such a dependency on your senses and no infor-mation pertaining to this image is kept in your mem-ory, you do not see such a scene. This is true ofeverything you experience in life. The day youenrolled in primary school, one of the birthdaysyou celebrated, an event you experienced, theday you graduated from high school, yourwedding day and similar other "turning points"in your life are each, in the sight of God, merelya moment. None of these events disappeared;they will exist forever.

Similarly, the sweet taste you discovered inchocolate when you were only a five year old, theanxiety you felt when you woke up to the first dayof the primary school, the boredom you felt inone of the classes in high school, the difficultequations your maths teacher wrote on theblackboard, the pain you felt when you lost aclose a friend in a traffic accident, the pride youtook in your academic accomplishments, theglow of happiness you felt when you suc-ceeded in having something you haddreamed of for years, in brief, all yourexperiences and feelings remain just asthey were; they are not simply kept inyour memory. You perceive what is kept in

The human being in the picture is being born"right now"; he is fishing, he is receiving his

diploma, getting married and even havingchildren and grandchildren "right at this

moment." Furthermore, he is dying now andlikewise, he is being judged in the

sight of God.


your memory simply as memory or the past. Though they exist right now,the brain does not perceive these scenes, since this is the way man is beingtested on earth. Believing they are bound by a steady, unvarying timeflow, streaming from the past to the future, people assume their lives aredivided into distinct sections, namely, past, present and future. This actu-ally poses a major hindrance to their grasp of particular events like theexistence of the hereafter, when and where paradise, hell and the day ofjudgement will take place. They cannot relate the concept of time in thesight of God to the concept of time people are bound by. However, know-ing that every living being, every event and everything is created eternal-ly square by square just like the squares making up a film roll and broughtinto being simultaneously will make it easier to comprehend this issue.

In the sight of God, everything has already taken place and finished.Some people hold the superstitious belief that God created the universeand granted man a certain lifetime and waits for them to be tested (Sure-ly God is beyond all that). And He will wait until the end of the universe.Yet, this is surely impossible. Waiting is a weakness peculiar to man andGod is surely not bound by such weakness. God's attribute, the al-Qud-dus (The Holy), with which God presents Himself to us in the Qur'an,means "free from all error, incapability and from any kind of defect". Thatis why God knows the past and future of all people, as well as their expe-riences, in great detail. But man, in this life, the arena of this test, assumestime to be linear with a beginning and an end. Yet, as stated earlier in thissection, it is not possible to talk of the concepts of past and present. Every-thing, all people, all living beings live simultaneously. All ages, minutes,seconds and even all days, hours and moments occur at the same time.Though man is unable to see this due to the limited capacity of his sensa-tions, this fact is evident. In the section "Relativity of the Qur’an", manyexamples were given to explain the difference between the time man isbound by and time in the sight of God. God draws our attention to thisissue in the following verse:

Truly, a day in the sight of your Lord is like a thousand years of your reck-

oning. (Surat Al-Hajj: 47)

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God, the al-Hasib, knows in detail the account of things people do

throughout their lives. If one remembers that nothing that is experienced

and that exists ever disappears, one will have a better grasp of this

attribute of God. That God knows everything, every detail of every event

that is experienced is stressed in the following verse:

Truly, God alone has knowledge of the Hour of Doom. It is He Who sends

down rain, and He Who knows what every womb contains. No self knows

what he will earn tomorrow: nor does anyone know in what land he is to

die. Truly, God has full knowledge of all things. (Surah Luqman: 34)

This is the main reason why believers appreciate the glory of God,

submit to Him and put their trust in Him. His Majesty simply reminds

one how prone one is to weakness and how one is in need of Him. They

are aware how weak they are next to His might. This superior moral

attribute displayed by believers is referred to in the Qur’an:

Say: "Nothing will happen to us except what God has decreed for us: He

is our protector": and in God alone should believers put their trust. (Surat

at-Tawbah: 51)

Say: "I possess no power to harm or help myself except as God wills."

(Surah Yunus: 49)

People whose faith is assured and who say these words are the ones

who can conceive of God’s attributes. That is why they wholeheartedly

submit to God.

Death is Not Extinction

Death is also one of the issues about which people have misconcep-

tions. Someone who dies is regarded as simply perishing. Because they

have inadequate information regarding the hereafter, the eternal life, par-

adise and hell, people commonly either never believe in resurrection after

death or harbour vague convictions about it. Consequently, the majority

surmise they lose someone for ever when he or she dies. This is surely a

completely bigoted stance. By the time one is born (once he is brought into

the realm of existence by God), one’s eternal life has begun. Like all other



moments composing one’s lifetime, death is merely a single moment that

one experiences, but, in reality, that person is still alive. All moments

before and after death and everything pertaining to one’s life are pre-

served without changing. For instance, after the death of someone people

mourn and say, "It is unfortunate that he died; he was so young." How-

ever, all the details of one’s life, memories of childhood, birth and family

still exist. They do not fade or become extinct. All experiences are pre-

served. As a requisite of the test in this world, these memories are simply

wiped from one’s memory; however, this, is by no means, the equivalent

of their not existing.

In the sight of God, the birth, life and death of a man take place and

finish simultaneously. The same reasoning applies to all human beings.

All human beings are coming into existence and dying right at this

moment. All are being resurrected and being sent to paradise or hell.

Thus, no one dies and nobody is reduced to insignificance; all individuals

are alive for all eternity. Within eternity, man spends only a portion of his

time in the world, and during this period where he is doomed to go—

either paradise or hell— is known. Just at this moment, some of the peo-

ple currently living in this world are in paradise while others are in hell.

This fact is stressed in the Qur’an; in many verses relating to paradise and

hell, the life in the hereafter is referred to in the simple present or past

tense, which draws one’s attention to the fact that all these incidents are

taking place at a single moment:

Truly, the Companions of the Garden that Day have joy in all that they do;

they and their associates are in shady groves, reclining on Thrones (of dig-

nity). (Surah Ya sin: 55-56)

And those who feared their Lord were led to the Garden in crowds: until

behold, they arrived there; its gates were opened; and its keepers said:

"Peace be upon you! You have led good lives! Enter Paradise and dwell in

it forever." They said: "Praise be to God, Who has truly fulfilled His

Promise to us, and has given us this land as a heritage: We can dwell in

the Garden as we will: how excellent a reward for the righteous!" And you

see the angels surrounding the Divine Throne on all sides, glorifying

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their Lord with praise. They are judged with fairness and all say: "Praise

be to God, the Lord of the Worlds!" (Surat az-Zumar: 73-75)

And the sinful saw the fire and realised they are going to fall into it and

find no way of escaping from it. (Surat al-Kahf: 53)

In human life, another important mystery prevails. While mourningfor someone who has died, people do not consider that they, themselves,have also died and even been resurrected. The birth and death of a personoccur simultaneously. Even trivial details about all people’s lives, deaths,resurrections and eternal lives are retained in the sight of God. In otherwords, everything is taking place right at this moment. Death and resur-rection are truly not incidents occurring at distinct times.

People are born in timelessness. Likewise, they die in timelessness,they are resurrected in timelessness and, as a matter of fact, just at thismoment, they are alive. By the moment God creates man, he becomes aneternal being. To put it another way, he starts his endless life, becomingalive for all eternity. Meanwhile, he also witnesses his own death as a sin-gle square. Just as he sees himself alive all through his life, he witnesseshis death, but only on one occasion.

An example will further clarify this subject. In the Qur’an, Godinforms us that sleep is also created as a form of death. Thus, every nightone witnesses his death when he goes to sleep and witnesses his resur-rection when he wakes up in the morning. This fact is manifested in thefollowing verse:

God takes back people's selves when their death arrives and those who

have not yet died, while they are asleep. He keeps hold of those whose

death has been decreed and sends the others back for a specified term.

There are certainly Signs in that for people who reflect. (Surat az-Zumar:

42)

Hence, man unceasingly witnesses his death and resurrection allthrough his life. Similarly, he will also see his real death. Consequently, hisbirth, death and resurrection as well as his eternal abode are all knownand man is forever alive in the sight of God. All these incidents have takenplace and finished in the sight of God. That is why, death, in the sense that



it is commonly understood, is not a termination or extinction. Considering these facts, mourning for someone who dies and feeling

sorry for his death sound simply irrational. A young man, a child or ahealthy person who dies does not, after all, perish; each exists in his beststate. In the sight of God, each is alive. This is a clear indication of God’sgreatness, which is also stated in the Qur’an:

God, there is no deity except Him, the Living, the Self-Sustaining. He is

not subject to drowsiness or sleep. Everything in the heavens and the

earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede with Him except by His permis-

sion? He knows what is before them and what is behind them but they

cannot grasp any of His knowledge save what He wills. His Footstool

encompasses the heavens and the earth and their preservation does not

tire Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent. (Surat al-Baqarah: 255)

The Life of an Animal Is Also A Single Moment

By the time life came into existence on earth, all phases an animalwent through had been retained in the sight of God. For instance, thebirth, death, the first hunt of a penguin, which lived at the south pole anddied 250 years ago, exist currently in the sight of God and will continueto exist forever. By the same token, all these incidents are happening justat this moment.

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Every moment of a pet an animal lover possessed in hischildhood remains in the sight of God. The moment heplayed with it, the moment he caressed it, the moment itdied in an accident, in brief, each moment whether heremembers it or not…

This also holds true foranimals we never saw. Acamel, which lived and died700 years ago, a crocodile inthe Amazon in 5 BC, a snakethat will crack the shell of itsegg in the year 2200, or a kan-garoo in Australia today. As amatter of fact, all thesedetails and incidents pertain-ing to the animals mentionedabove, as well as of all otheranimals of all times, occursimultaneously, that is to say,right at this moment. Everymoment of this camel, including the moment it was born, the moment itcarried a load in the desert and the moment it drank water are all retainedin the sight of God. Just now, the camel in question, however, is still drink-ing water, and is still carrying its load… All the camels that have everlived throughout world history and each moment they spent in this worldare still alive.

This may seem to be beyond the grasp of the human mind, when oneconsiders that there have been trillions of animals living on the planet.Yet, a mystery of the might of God is hidden here. God, the al-Alim, is theAll-Knowing. God surely knows everything about each being, whether itis living, inanimate or dead. This remarkable fact is related in the follow-ing verse:

He does take an account of them (all), and has numbered them (all) exact-

ly. (Surah Maryam: 94)

The death of animals is no different from that of human beings. As isthe case with human beings, the moments of an animal’s life do not van-ish after its death either. At the sudden death of one’s pet, —for instance,


The butterflies and flowers, in short,all the details you see in a gardenwhich you pass by are preserved inthe sight of God.


a bird,— one feels sorry. That bird, however, is not dead; it is retained inthe memory of God in its best state. The time this bird spent in its egg, theday it came one’s house and the time it struggled to fly as a young birdare entirely in the memory of God. Alternatively, in the sight of God, eachmoment of a dead dog’s past life and the moment it died are known. Allmoments pertaining to the dog’s past life; while it was still a puppy, whileit barked, walked, drank water and all its other states unknown to itsowner are available in the sight of God.

The same reasoning applies to all animals. The birth and death of thedog mentioned in Surat al-Kahf, and each moment it spent in front of thecave is in the memory of God. Likewise, the camel brought by the ProphetSalih, and the moment his people slew the camel, though clearly prohib-ited by God, are in His memory. Alternatively, the moment a beast iskilled by being trodden upon remains in the sight of God. The death of thebeast lasts only a moment and, like all other beings, it is only an imageand each image of it remains in the sight of God. That we do not see any-thing pertaining to the beast after it has died does not mean that it disap-pears. The death of an insect is also over in a single moment. Like all otherbeings, it is only a perception for us and every image regarding its liferemains without changing. That we do not see anything connected with itdoes not mean that it has disappeared. It has merely vanished from one’smemory. In the sight of God, if the image belonging to that insect is ani-mated again, and presented to our five senses, we may see it again.

The same is true of a colourful butterfly seen by a man during theperiod of the French Revolution. It is quite possible that the man felt sorryfor this beautiful butterfly when he saw that it had become a prey for abird. However, that butterfly, with all its symmetric beauty and colours, isright now in the sight of God. Every moment of the butterfly, every timeit opened its wings, every time it closed them, every flower it visited areknown in the sight of God. Furthermore, this butterfly is doing all thesedeeds just now. Just now, this butterfly is flying, right now it is eating andright now, it is dying… After all, this butterfly is alive, and it will remainalive for all eternity. The feelings of the man who felt sorry for the death


of this butterfly, and moreover, each and every moment of this man’s life

exist forever.

This fact is stressed in the following verse:

Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or earth which is not

in a Clear Book. (Surat an-Naml: 75)

These explanations provide explicit answers to some frequently

asked questions, such as, "Do animals have a spirit?" or "What will be

their end?" These living beings are in the memory of God and this is the

point that really matters. As long as the information about any animal is

recorded in the sight of God (remember that by the time it is created, it is

destined to eternity), it is alive. Yet, what is meant by "alive" here is God’s

creating it in the form of a sensation. In this sense, none of the other liv-

ing beings bear any similarity to God's attribute, the al-Hayy (The Ever-

Living). In that sense, the really important thing is not whether the animal

has a spirit or not, but whether it is created in the memory or not. If God

wills, this living being exists in our memory; if not, it does not. If God

takes back the image of an animal from one’s memory, this means that it

has died. If, however, He gives it back to the memory, this means that it

has become alive. It must be borne in mind that this animal remains in the

memory of God forever, since God is not bound by time. In timelessness,

it is not possible to talk of past, present and future. It is all a single

moment.

Flowers Never Fade, Fruits Never Disappear…

God is the One Who retains the knowledge of everything. As stated

in the verse above, since the creation of the universe, all the leaves, and

the different states they go through during their life span, are all known

by God. For instance, the information about a tree which grew in Babylon

— down to a single leaf of this tree, is all kept in the sight of God. Fur-

thermore, all stages of this leaf pertaining to its fall from the tree are indi-

vidually kept in the memory of God. Sitting under this tree in Babylon, a

man watching the leaf falling, too, unknowingly remains there. None of


the seconds he spent in watching this leaf disappeared or remained in thepast.

Most probably, the fall of a single leaf from a tree might be perceivedas an insignificant incident. Nevertheless, the fall of all the leaves whichhave ever existed throughout history is also in the memory of God.

In one of the verses, this fact is related as follows:

...He knows everything in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His

knowing it. There is no seed in the darkness of the earth, and nothing

moist or dry which is not in a Clear Book. (Surat al-An'am: 59 )

The only thing one who comprehends this fact should do is to sub-mit himself to his Creator.

As stated in the verse, "He rules all affairs from the heavens to theearth..." (Surat as-Sajdah: 5), all animals, plants, human beings, in brief, allliving beings and events are created by God and their information is keptin the sight of God.

The same facts also hold true for flowers. Contrary to the com-mon belief, a poppy does not disappear when it fades: it simplycontinues to exist in the sight of God. As made clear in theverse "For He is Well-versed in every kind of cre-ation!" (Surah Ya sin: 79), all phases of theflower; its budding, as well as this verysame flower in bloom, together withits faded state, are all present.Besides, as stated earlier, theconsecutive changesoccurring in the

The consecutive changesoccurring in a flower,though seemingly takingplace at distinct times, areactually taking placesimultaneously. After awhile, the different imagesin the memory of a personwho sees this flowerdisappear. Yet, everymoment remains in theeternal memory of God.


poppy, though seemingly separate, are in fact phases occurring simulta-neously. In the sight of God, all details pertaining to a single poppy arekept. However, God makes this information known to whomever Hewills. In the memory of those who see the poppy, all the images relatingto it disappear. Yet, every image remains forever in the memory of God.

God, the al-Muhsi (The Counter), Who knows the number of allthings although they cannot be counted, knows the number of every leaffalling. Besides, all plants, leaves and flowers, all moments from theirbirth to death, their growth, drying and falling, as well as each rain dropfalling on them are within the knowledge of God. These, with all themoments of all other living beings, are created in a single moment and ona single plane. As a whole, they are brought into being right now. Conse-quently, when a leaf dries and falls down, this does not mean that it isdead; it is only erased from our memory. However, they may still be alivein someone else’s memory. If God presents its image to someone else’s

memory, he continues to see this particular leaf. The same is true of a violet in your flowerpot. The budding

stage of your violet, the first moment it faded and fell down tothe ground are all in the sight of

God. In other words, the violetis blossoming right at this


The concept of time is valid only forman. The memory of God is above all

times. Throughout history, all vio-lets, which existed, are actually

blossoming right now, just asthey are fading now. The same

is also true for the violetsyou grow in your flowerpot.

moment. Yet, it is also fad-ing just at this moment.There is no time gap

between its blossoming and itsfading. The time concept exists only for

us; the memory of God is superior to alltimes. Remembering this fact, one realises

that all violets, which existed all through histo-ry, are blossoming simultaneously, just as how they are fading at thesame time. All the moments of the lifetime of a tiny little plant in anAfrican jungle which grew 1500 years ago are also coded in the "TheMother of the Book". Similarly, 14 centuries ago, the tree under which truebelievers swore allegiance to our Prophet Muhammad, the production ofseeds by this tree, extension of its buds, as well as the drying up of thistree, take place right at this moment. All the moments of a blade of grass,growing on any mountain of the earth, a cactus in any desert, a bushgrowing in a remote part of the world, a snowdrop in the tundra or adaisy growing near a motorway are all kept in the memory of God. Mostprobably, no one on earth is aware of these plants and from now on, noone will ever recognise them. However, they are all known to God:

… Whom not even the weight of smallest particle eludes, either in the

heavens or in the earth; nor is there anything smaller or larger than that

which is not in a Clear Book. (Surah Saba': 3)

Knowledge of the Hour is referred to Him. And no fruit emerges from its

husk, nor does any female get pregnant or give birth, without His knowl-

edge. (Surah Fussilat: 47)


Every stageof the

formation ofraindrops is

within theknowledge

of God.God is

Well-versedin everykind of

creation.

In another verse, the same fact is stressed as follows:

He knows what goes into the earth and what comes out of it, and what

comes down from heaven and what goes up into it. And He is the Most

Merciful, the Ever-Forgiving. (Surah Saba': 2)

To have a better grasp of these explanations, one can think about

fruits. The taste, odour, colour, and ripeness of a banana growing in Africa

is in the sight of God. Even before the seed of this banana tree is planted

in the soil, the moment the banana is plucked from its branch, the person

plucking it and the time this banana will be eaten are known by God. God

informs us about this fact in the following verse:

There is no creature on the earth which is not dependent upon God for its

provision. He knows where it lives and where it dies. They are all in a

Clear Book. (Surah Hud: 6)

Every stage the banana goes through from the moment it is plucked

till it is eaten, is in the memory of God. It may seem that a long period of

time passed between when the banana flower first blossomed on its

branch and the moment it was eaten. In other words, one might assume

that the banana existed for a considerably long time. This fruit became

ripe, and then it was plucked from its branch. Then it went through sev-

eral stages like packaging, loading, shipment, storing, distribution, deliv-


All details, such as what will happenas these trees are cut down, who willcut them down, in the constructionof which house they will be used,are determined beforehand in thesight of God.

ery, and lastly purchasing. Most probably a member of the family of the

person who bought this banana or a visitor will eat it. Yet, as stressed ear-

lier in former sections, this sequence of events is perceived by man, a

being bound by time and space. In the sight of God, however, the whole

life of the banana takes place at a single moment. The banana is growing

right at this moment and is being eaten again at this moment. Yet, the

same banana is being plucked from its branch, just as it is being loaded on

to a truck right now.

To repeat, the life of that banana, or your life, as well as the life of

Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great or of Edison, is lived in the same

moment. The knowledge of all fruits, plants, human beings and animals,

ever to have lived throughout history, is in the memory of God. These


facts are surely comprehensible for those who ponder deeply and withsincerity.

Another important point is that none of these fruits decay, disappearor become extinct. Think of an orange that grew in a Mediterranean coun-try 50 years ago. Many details regarding this orange are predestined; suchas when it will grow and on which tree, whether it will be sour or sweet,its shape, its exact colour, the place where it will be stored, the truck bywhich it will be transported, the grocery shop in which it will be sold, thecustomer who will buy it…Maybe it will be forgotten in a fruit basket. Inthis case, the process through which it goes totallymouldy, the moment it is found by someone andthrown into the trash are all predestined. As we haveseen, every second of even an orange’s life, the firstmoment it buds, ripens or decays exists in the sightof God for all eternity. Therefore, that orange doesnot vanish in the sight of God. That is because,God is the al-Hayy. In other words,He is alive. Everything in His mem-ory becomes alive from His saying"BE!".

It is He Who sends down water

from the sky from which We

bring forth plants of every kind,

and from that We bring forth the

green shoots and from them We bring

Every second ofthe life span of asingle orange ispreserved in the

memory of God forall eternity.


forth close-packed seeds, and from the spathes of the date palm date clus-

ters hanging down, and gardens of grapes and olives and pomegranates,

both similar and dissimilar. Look at their fruits as they bear fruit and

ripen. There are Signs in that for people who have faith. (Surat al-An'am:

99)

Not A Drop of Water Disappears

What has been related so far is also valid for running water. Eachdrop of a stream, a spring, a fountain, an artesian well, or a fall is kept inthe sight of God. Not a drop disappears and is wasted. It continues toexist for all eternity. As is the case with living beings, all moments andstates pertaining to them are hidden in God's memory. All waters whichhave run ever since the beginning of the universe, the ones currently run-ning, as well as the ones which will run in the future are actually runningjust at this moment. That is to say, all are running at this single moment.There is a time in eternity and all incidents take place in one moment.

The water which ran 300 years ago in the Mississippi, and the waterwhich ran 500 years ago in theRhine as well as the water whichwill run in 200 years time in theRiver Euphrates are, in reality,running simultaneously in a sin-gle moment. They are all runningat this very moment. Not a dropof water disappears; it continuesto run forever in the sight of God.

94

Waters all over the universe are alsorunning at a single moment. Even a

drop of water does not disappear; it ispreserved in the sight of God for all

eternity.

Going Back To The Beginning is Also Possible

That everything is in the memory of God brings us to another impor-

tant mystery: by the will of God, going back to the initial moment of an

event is also possible. Being bound by time, such an incident seems

impossible for man. Yet, in the sight of God, time does not exist. As

stressed earlier, past and present are all a single moment; just as a video-

tape cassette includes all the actions moment by moment. After watching

a film, it is possible to rewind and re-watch it. Likewise, the same is true

for daily events; by the will of God, it is possible to see past events again.

It is surely easy for God to recreate a past event.

An example will contribute to a fuller understanding of these facts:

The gardens of Saba' that have been converted into "gardens containingbitter-tasting plants and tamarisk and a few lote trees" (Surah Saba': 16),


The states in which these areas were 1000years ago or 500 years ago together with thefoundations, which will be built on in thefuture, actually exist at a single moment.


as referred to in the Qur’an, are still in the sight of God. The state of the

garden both before and after its destruction remains in the memory of

God. Thousands of years ago, in a remote part of the world, the transfor-

mation of a beautiful garden into a wheat field is in the sight of God. A

house built on this wheat field after hundreds of years, as well as the col-

lapse of this building and construction of a workshop in its place are all

present in the sight of God. Finally, the current state of this wheat field,

now a region populated with ghettos, is also present in the sight of God.

All the intermediary stages in between these views of the same area, too,

are in the sight of God for all eternity. By the will of God, it is possible to

go back and see the initial appearance of this garden.

Surely, all beings and incidents that have existed since the beginning

of the universe are in the memory of God. None of these moments are

missing. This is indeed a remarkable phenomenon. This fact is a great

blessing for believers in paradise, since they might wish to see their past

life or certain historical events. By the will of God, believers might actu-

ally have the opportunity to see these events.

For instance, one might wish to see the big-bang, the first moment of

the creation of the universe, the initial formation of galaxies, the initial

stages of the first atom, the phases one goes through in one’s mother’s

womb, a war which took place in ancient times, the lives of living beings

in the depths of oceans, the sinking of the Titanic, the childhood of one’s

mother, the life of one’s grandson, a cat lost years ago or a plant planted

in childhood. All these events, with all their details are present in the sight

of God. In this sense, by the will of God, man has the chance to see what-

ever he wishes, which is surely of great blessing to him.

The Responsibility This Information Imposes

On Man

The subjects which have been related so far are surely very important

and striking. The aspect of this issue which is crucial for us is the follow-

ing: every moment we live, every attitude we assume, every word we

96

utter or every thought we harbour arekept in the sight of God. That believersare aware of this fact is manifested in thewords of the Prophet Jesus, in the fol-lowing verse:

And when God says, "‘Jesus son of

Mary! Did you say to people, 'Take me

and my mother as two gods instead of

God alone?'" he will say, "Glory be to

You! It is not for me to say what I have

no right to say! If I had said it, then

You would have known it. You know

what is in my self but I do not know

what is in Your Self. You are the

Knower of all unseen things." (Surat al-Ma'idah: 116)

There is another aspect of this fact: any attitude, which is notfavoured by God, or any deed, which is not within the limits of God, areall kept in the memory of God. Anyone trying to deny any misdeeds willfail, since he will see the images relative to these misdeeds. Since nothingdisappears, misdeeds are also retained. Therefore, those failing to observethe limits of God or engaging in deeds which will not earn the good plea-sure of God - assuming that nobody sees or hears them - will be greatlyastonished. They will individually witness that God knows everything:

He is God in the heavens and in the earth. He knows what you keep secret

and what you make public and He knows what you earn. (Surat al-An'am:

3)

However, on Judgment Day, the day when everyone will see hisdeeds, nobody will have any opportunity to save himself since, asstressed by God in the Qur’an, on that day God will encompass thementirely:

... What confronts them from God will be something they did not reckon

with. What confronts them will be the evil actions which they earned and

what they used to mock at will engulf them. (Surat az-Zumar: 47-48)


Messengers before you

were mocked. I gave

those who disbelieve a

little more time and

then I seized them.

How terrible was my

retribution! (Surat

ar-Ra'd: 32)


The Day of Judgement will be the day unbelievers will face some-

thing they never expected to face: God will disclose all the misdeeds the

unbelievers try to hide. Just as stated in the verse, what unbelievers used

to mock at all through their lives will, this time, engulf them. The faith of

believers in God and the hereafter had always been an issue ridiculed by

unbelievers all throughout their lives. They merely interpret these certi-

fied facts as misconceptions. To their disappointment, however, these

facts encompass them all in an unexpected way, since they themselves

have been deceived. All their misdeeds are present in the memory of God

and on the Day of Judgment, they will come face to face with each one of

them. Every time they try to deny them, the images pertaining to their

misdeeds will be presented to them. This will be the time they will realise

that the knowledge of God surrounds them all. God describes this state of

the unbelievers as follows:

God is mocking them, and drawing them on, as they wander blindly in

their excessive insolence. (Surat al-Baqarah: 15)

Without exception, the violence resorted to by unbelievers in the

time of the Prophet Muhammad, the misdeeds perpetrated by unbeliev-

ers in the respective periods of the Prophets Noah and Abraham are all

kept in the sight of God. That the Prophet Joseph (Yusuf) was thrown

down to the bottom of the well by his brothers or that the people of Israel

mistreated the Prophet Moses are, by no means, forgotten; with no excep-

tion, they all exist in the sight of God. Everything, most probably with all

the details no one has ever witnessed before, is kept in its entirety. This

fact is stressed in the following verse:

They may try to hide from people while they can never hide from God.

He is with them when they spend the night saying things which are not

pleasing to Him. God encompasses everything they do. (Surat an-Nisa':

108)

The same thing holds true for those unbelievers living in our day.

They confidently assume that the plots they plan against believers or reli-

gion will remain hidden and they will never have to face them on the Day

98

of Judgment. But the slightest wicked deed, and every slander they makeup against believers are in the memory of God. The fact that these imagesare withdrawn from their memory should not deceive them. It may bequite possible that they themselves forgot a slander they spread aboutbelievers a decade ago. However, all these misdeeds exist in the memoryof God. By the Will of God, these incidents might, at any time, reappearin their memories. Yet, unaware of this fact, and "because they are a peo-ple without understanding" (Surat al-Ma'idah: 58), unbelievers cannotcomprehend the might of God. Yet, on the Day of Judgment, they will seethe reality and suffer great shame and regret.

The response of the Prophet Shu'ayb to such an attitude on the partof the leaders of his people draws our attention to the same point — thatthey are people without understanding:

They said, "Shu‘ayb, We do not understand much of what you say and we

see you are weak among us. Were it not for your immediate family, we

would have stoned you. We do not hold you in high esteem!" He said, "My

people! Do you esteem my family ties more than you do God? You have

made Him into something to cast disdainfully behind your backs! But my

Lord encompasses everything that you do!" (Surah Hud: 91-92)

When God creates the Day of Judgment, He will be very swift atreckoning the unbelievers. When one fully comprehends the facts pre-sented throughout the book - that every moment of everything that is cre-ated is preserved for all eternity - it will surely not be difficult to imaginethat all people will be judged very swiftly, in a single moment. Moreover,it is essential that one should not consider this moment very far off,because that moment is actually now. In other words, all people are giv-ing an account of the misdeeds they have committed in this world rightnow. Unbelievers imagine that what they do will not be seen or heard, orwill be forgotten. However, on the Day of Judgment they will be greatlydisappointed:

You thought that God did not know many of the things that you used to

do! "But this thought of yours which you entertained about your Lord, has

brought you to destruction, so that now you are among the utterly lost!"

(Surah Fussilat: 22-23)


he foregoing exposition should have given the reader a clearerconception of the fact that God encompasses everything. Intimelessness and in a world of a collection of images, man is

being tested all alone by his Creator. This leaves man all alone with God.The verse, "Leave Me alone, to deal with the creature whom I createdbare and alone." (Surat Al-Muddaththir: 11) is a clear indication of thistruth.

Once in possession of the facts explained in this book, the reader willeasily comprehend that including himself, man lives in a world com-prised merely of sensations. In this universe of perceptions, the soleabsolute being is God. There is no other deity but Him. All the things peo-ple attach importance to and hence cast their religion away for are simplymeaningless:

That is because God – He is the Truth, and what you call upon besides

Him is falsehood. God is the All-High, the Most Great. (Surah Luqman:

30)

On a three-dimensional, high quality screen, an individual watches afilm being projected. Since he is almost attached to this screen, he cannotsucceed in detaching himself from it, so that he may grasp the situationhe is in. Forgetting that he is in the presence of God and is being tested byHim, he feels himself to be an independent and separate being, apart fromGod. Hence, he assumes himself to be very important. His experiences inlife seem to be so real that he considers his imaginary body, his imaginarypossessions, his imaginary family, and imaginary friends he watches onthe screen to be real and feels pride in them. However, as it is statedexpressly in the verse, "Blessed be Him to whom belongs the sovereign-ty of the heavens and the earth and everything in between them.."(Surat az-Zukhruf: 85), the sole owner of these possessions is God. WereGod to withdraw this image from the screen, even for a moment, thehuman watcher would recognise that he is all alone. Furthermore, hewould feel ashamed of being proud of all the images he watches on thescreen; that is to say, of his body, his possessions and everything else hesees in the external world.

101


A sensate being pondering over these facts would also appreciate his

weakness in the sight of God. He can earn esteem and lead a pleasurable

life for all eternity only when he bows to his Creator. Only then can he

hope for God to show him the images of paradise for all eternity. That is

because, just as this world is a collection of perceptions, so are paradise

and hell. All images pertaining to paradise and hell are preserved in the

memory of God. And God allows those He wills to see these images.

What God expects from His servants is quite explicit: to appreciate

His power and to lead a life observing His limits. Yet, some people,

because of their heedlessness, forget their Creator or deny Him. At this

point, one of the major factors misleading them is the crowd of people, —

which they assume to exist — surrounding them. These people display

such a rebellious attitude because they assume their friends, associates,

everyone who shares the same mentality with them, exist, and because

they forget that they are all alone. To their disappointment, however, each

one of them is all alone, no matter with how many people he is sur-

rounded. There is no one to help him except for God:

…They will not find any protector or helper for themselves besides God.

(Surat an-Nisa': 173)

As stressed in the verse "Each of them will come to Him on the Day

of Resurrection, alone." (Surah Maryam: 95), on the Day of Judgement,

they will be all alone in the presence of God. Nor will their friends and rel-

atives, who forget the Day of Judgment and hereafter, be next to them on

that Day. And certainly satan, whom they followed eagerly, will leave

them:

He led me astray from the Reminder after it came to me. The evil always

leaves man in the lurch. (Surat al-Furqan: 29)

You have come to Us all alone just as We created you at first, leaving

behind you everything We bestowed on you. We do not see your interces-

sors accompanying you, those you claimed were your partners with God.

The link between you is cut. Those you made such claims for have for-

saken you. (Surat al-An'am: 94)

102

For those having a sincere approach, it is easy to grasp these facts.The explanations in the Qur’an are quite explicit. This fact never changes,whether you are in the middle of a crowd, in a cinema, in a meeting, in abusy street, or among your close friends. You are, in reality, all alone. Thestate of those who cannot grasp this fact due to their prejudiced attitudeis explained in the following verse:

…that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom. (Surat al-Hashr: 14)

Those who set aside their prejudice and ponder over these facts arethe believers, those who can think and take heed:

Is one who worships devoutly during the night, prostrating himself or

standing in adoration, who takes heed of the Hereafter, and who places

his hope in the Mercy of his Lord like one who does not? Say: "Are those

equal, those who know and those who do not know? Truly, none will take

heed but men of understanding." (Surat az-Zumar: 9)

Is then one who knows that what has been revealed to you by your Lord

is the Truth, like one who is blind? Truly, none will take heed but the

wise. (Surat az-Zumar: 19)

So, you also submit to God and obey Him. And avoid being, as is said in the verse, "the one who is blind."

Conclusion 103

very detail in this universe points to a superior creation. On thecontrary, materialism, which seeks to deny the fact of creation inthe universe, is nothing but an unscientific fallacy.

With materialism invalidated, all other theories based on this philos-ophy are rendered baseless. The foremost of them is Darwinism, that is,the theory of evolution. This theory, which argues that life originatedfrom inanimate matter through coincidences, has been demolished withthe recognition of the fact that the universe was created by God. Ameri-can astrophysicist Hugh Ross explains this as follows:

Atheism, Darwinism, and virtually all the "isms" emanating from the eigh-

teenth to the twentieth century philosophies are built upon the assumption,

the incorrect assumption, that the universe is infinite. The singularity has

brought us face to face with the cause – or causer – beyond/behind/before

the universe and all that it contains, including life itself.30

It is God Who created the universe and who designed it down to itssmallest detail. Therefore, it is impossible for the theory of evolution,which holds that living beings were not created by God, but are productsof coincidences, to be true.

Unsurprisingly, when we look at the theory of evolution, we see thatthis theory is denounced by scientific findings. The design in life isextremely complex and striking. In the inanimate world, for instance, wecan explore how sensitive are the balances which atoms rest upon, andfurther, in the animate world, we can observe in how complex designsthese atoms were brought together, and how extraordinary as mecha-nisms are structures such as proteins, enzymes, and cells, which are man-ufactured from them.

This extraordinary design in life invalidated Darwinism at the end ofthe 20th century.

We dealt with this subject in great detail in some of our other stud-ies, and we still do. However, we think that, due to its importance, it willbe helpful to make a short summary here as well.

105


The Scientific Collapse of Darwinism

Although a doctrine going back as far as ancient Greece, the theoryof evolution was not advanced extensively until the 19th century. The mostimportant development that made this theory the most compelling topicof the world of science was the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin’sbook titled "The Origin of Species." In this book, Darwin denied that dif-ferent living species on the earth were created separately by God. Accord-ing to Darwin, all living beings had a common ancestor and they diversi-fied over time through small changes.

Darwin’s theory was not based on any concrete scientific finding; ashe also accepted, it was just an "assumption." Moreover, as Darwin con-fessed in the long chapter of his book titled "Difficulties of the Theory," thetheory was failing in the face of many critical questions.

Darwin invested all his hopes in new scientific discoveries, which heexpected to solve the "Difficulties of the Theory." However, contrary to hisexpectations, scientific findings expanded the dimensions of these diffi-culties.

The defeat of Darwinism against science can be reviewed underthree basic headings:

1) The theory can by no meansexplain how life originated on the earth.

2) There is no scientific finding show-ing that the "evolutionary mechanisms"proposed by the theory have any power toevolve at all.

3) The fossil record proves quite thecontrary of the suggestions of the theory ofevolution.

In this section, we will examine thesethree basic points in general outline:

106

Charles Darwin

The First Insurmountable Step:

The Origin of Life

The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved from a

single living cell that emerged on the primitive earth 3.8 billion years ago.

How a single cell could generate millions of complex living species and if

such an evolution really occurred, why traces of it cannot be observed in

the fossil record are some questions the theory cannot answer. However,

first and foremost, the first step of the alleged evolutionary process has to

be inquired into. How did this "first cell" originate?

Since the theory of evolution denies creation and does not accept any

kind of supernatural intervention, it maintains that the "first cell" origi-

nated coincidentally within laws of nature, without any design, plan, or

arrangement. According to the theory, inanimate matter must have pro-

duced a living cell as a result of coincidences. This, however, is a claim

inconsistent with the most clearly recognized rules of biology.

"Life Comes from Life"

In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The primitive

understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that living

beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times, spontaneous

generation, the theory asserting that non-living materials came together

to form living organisms, was widely accepted. It was commonly

believed that insects came into being from food leftovers, and mice from

wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this theory.

Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was believed that

mice would originate out of it after a while.

Similarly, worming of meat was assumed to be an evidence for spon-

taneous generation. However, only some time later was it understood that

worms did not appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried to it by

flies in the form of larvae, invisible to the naked eye.

Even in the period when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the

belief that bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter was



widely accepted in the world ofscience.

However, five years afterDarwin’s book was published,the discovery of Louis Pasteurdisproved this belief, whichconstituted the groundwork ofevolution. Pasteur summarizedthe conclusion he reached aftertime-consuming studies andexperiments: "The claim thatinanimate matter can originatelife is buried in history forgood."31

Advocates of the theory ofevolution resisted the findingsof Pasteur for a long time. How-ever, as the development of science unraveled the complex structure ofthe cell of a living being, the idea that life could come into being coinci-dentally faced an even greater impasse.

Inconclusive Efforts in the

20th Century

The first evolutionist who took up the sub-ject of the origin of life in the 20th century was therenowned Russian biologist, Alexander Oparin.With various theses he advanced in the 1930’s, hetried to prove that the cell of a living being couldoriginate by coincidence. These studies, however,were doomed to failure, and Oparin had to makethe following confession: "Unfortunately, the ori-gin of the cell remains a question which is actual-

108

With the experiments he carried out, LouisPasteur invalidated the claim that "inanimatematter can create life", which constituted the

groundwork of the theory of evolution.

Alexander Oparin'sattempts to offer an

evolutionistexplanation for theorigin of life ended

in a great fiasco.

ly the darkest point of the complete evolu-tion theory."32

Evolutionist followers of Oparin triedto carry out experiments to clear up theenigma of the origin of life. The bestknown of these experiments was carriedout by American chemist Stanley Miller in1953. Combining in an experiment thegases he alleged to have existed in the pri-mordial earth atmosphere and addingenergy to the mixture, Miller synthesizedseveral organic molecules (amino acids)present in the structure of proteins.

It only took a few years for it to berevealed that this experiment, which wasthen presented as an important step in the name of evolution, was invalid,and that the atmosphere used in the experiment was very different fromthat of real earth conditions.33

After a long silence, Miller confessed that the atmosphere mediumhe used was unrealistic.34

All the evolutionist efforts throughout the 20th century which weremeant to explain the origin of life ended in failure. The geochemist JeffreyBada from San Diego Scripps Institute accepts this fact in an article pub-lished in Earth Magazine in 1998:

Today, as we leave the twentieth century, we still face the biggest unsolved

problem that we had when we entered the twentieth century: How did life

originate on Earth?35

The Complex Structure of Life

The primary reason why the theory of the evolutionary origin of lifeended up in a major impasse is that even the living organisms deemedthe simplest have incredibly complex structures. The cell of a living being


As accepted also by the latest evolutionist theorists,

the origin of life is still agreat stumbling block for

the theory of evolution.

is more complex than all of the technological products produced by man.Today, even in the most developed laboratories in the world, a living cellcannot be produced by bringing inorganic materials together.

The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too great inquantity to be explained away by coincidences. The probability of pro-teins, the building blocks of the cell, being synthesized coincidentally, is 1in 10950 for an average protein made up of 500 amino acids. In mathemat-ics, a probability smaller than 1 over 1050 is practically considered to beimpossible.

The DNA molecule, which is located in the nucleus of the cell andwhich stores genetic information, is an incredible databank. It is calculat-ed that if the information coded in DNA were written down, this wouldmake a giant library consisting of 900 volumes of encyclopedias of 500pages each.

A very interesting dilemma emerges at this point: the DNA can repli-cate only with the help of some specialized proteins (enzymes). However,the synthesis of these enzymes can be realized only by using the informa-tion coded in DNA. As they both depend on each other, they have to existat the same time for replication. This brings the scenario that life originat-ed by itself to a deadlock. Reputable evolutionist Prof. Leslie Orgel fromthe University of San Diego California, admits to this fact in the Septem-ber 1994 issue of the Scientific American magazine:

It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic acids, both of which are

structurally complex, arose spontaneously in the same place at the same

time. Yet it also seems impossible to have one without the other. And so, at

first glance, one might have to conclude that life could never, in fact, have

originated by chemical means.36

No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated by naturalcauses, then it has to be accepted that life is "created" in a supernaturalway. This fact explicitly invalidates the theory of evolution, whose mainpurpose is to deny creation.

110 ETERNITY HAS ALREADY BEGUN

Imaginary Mechanisms of Evolution

The second important point that negates Darwin’s theory is that both

concepts put forward by the theory as "evolutionary mechanisms" were

understood to have no evolutionary power in reality.

Darwin based his theory of evolution entirely on the mechanism of

"natural selection". The importance he placed on this mechanism was evi-

dent in the name of his book: The Origin of Species, By Means Of Natural

Selection…

Natural selection holds that those living things that are stronger and

more suited to the natural conditions of their habitats will survive in the

struggle for life. For example, in a deer herd under the threat of wild ani-

mals, those that can run faster will survive. Therefore, the deer herd will

be comprised of faster and stronger individuals. However, unquestion-

ably, this mechanism will not cause deer to evolve and transform them

into another living species, for instance, horses.

Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary

power. Darwin was also aware of this fact and had to state this in his book

The Origin of Species by saying: "Natural selection can do nothing until

favourable variations chance to occur."37


One of the facts nullifying the theory of evolution is the incredibly complex structureof life. The DNA molecule located in the nucleus of cells of living beings is anexample of this. The DNA is a sort of databank formed of the arrangement of four different molecules in different sequences. This databank contains the codes of allthe physical traits of that living being. When the human DNA is put into writing, itis calculated that this would result in an encyclopaedia made up of 900 volumes.Unquestionably, such extraordinary information definitively refutes the conceptof coincidence.


Lamarck’s Impact

So, how could these "favourable variations" occur? Darwin tried to

answer this question from the standpoint of the primitive understanding

of science in his age. According to the French biologist Lamarck, who

lived before Darwin, living creatures passed the traits they acquired dur-

ing their lifetime to the next generation and these traits, accumulating

from one generation to another, caused new species to be formed. For

instance, according to Lamarck, giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they

struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from

generation to generation.

Darwin also gave similar examples, and in his book The Origin of

Species, for instance, said that some bears going into water to find food

transformed into whales over time.38

However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Mendel and verified

by the science of genetics that flourished in the 20th century, utterly demol-

ished the legend that acquired traits were passed on to subsequent gener-

ations. Thus, the theory of natural selection fell into disfavour as a factor

in the story of evolution.

112

Since the beginning of the century, evolutionists have beentrying to produce mutations in fruit flies, and give this as anexample for useful mutation. However, the only result obtainedat the end of these efforts that lasted for decades were disfigured,diseased and defective flies. Above is the head of a normal fruitfly and on the right is the head of a mutated fruit fly.

antenna

eyes

mouth

leg

Neo-Darwinism and Mutations

In order to find a solution, Darwinists advanced the "Modern Syn-thetic Theory", or as it is more commonly known, Neo-Darwinism, at theend of the 1930’s. To natural selection, Neo-Darwinism added mutationswhich are distortions formed in the genes of living beings because ofexternal factors such as radiation or replication errors as the "cause offavourable variations."

Today, the model that stands for evolution in the world is Neo-Dar-winism. The theory maintains that millions of living beings present on theearth formed as a result of a process whereby numerous complex organsof these organisms such as the ears, eyes, lungs, and wings, underwent"mutations," that is, genetic disorders. Yet, there is a clear cut scientific fact


The theory of evolution claims that living species gradually evolved from one another.The fossil record, however, explicitly falsifies this claim. For example, in the CambrianPeriod, some 550 million years ago, tens of totally distinct living species emergedsuddenly. These living beings depicted in the above picture have very complexstructures. This fact, referred to as the "Cambrian Explosion" in scientific literatureis plain evidence of creation.


that belies the theory. Mutations do not cause living beings to develop,but on the contrary, always cause them harm.

The reason for this is very simple: DNA has a very complex structureand random changes can only be damaging to it. American geneticist B.G.Ranganathan explains this as follows:

Mutations are small, random, and harmful. They rarely occur and the best

possibility is that they will be ineffectual. These four characteristics of muta-

tions imply that mutations cannot lead to an evolutionary development. A

random change in a highly specialised organism is either ineffectual or

harmful. A random change in a watch cannot improve the watch. It will

most probably harm it or at best be ineffectual. An earthquake does not

improve the city, it brings destruction.39

Not surprisingly, no mutation example, which is useful, that is,which is observed to develop the genetic code, has been observed so far.All mutations have proved to be harmful. It was understood that muta-tion, which is presented as an "evolutionary mechanism," is actually agenetic occurrence that harms living beings, and leaves them disabled.(The most common effect of mutation on human beings is cancer). Nodoubt, a destructive mechanism cannot be an "evolutionary mechanism."Natural selection, on the other hand, "can do nothing by itself" as Darwinalso accepted. This fact shows us that there is no "evolutionary mecha-nism" in nature. Since no evolutionary mechanism exists, neither couldany imaginary process called evolution have taken place.

The Fossil Record: No Sign of Intermediate Forms

The clearest evidence that the scenario suggested by the theory ofevolution did not take place is the fossil record.

According to the theory of evolution, every living species has sprungfrom a predecessor. A previously existing species turned into somethingelse in time and all species have come into being in this way. According tothe theory, this transformation proceeds gradually over millions of years.

Had this been the case, then numerous intermediary species shouldhave existed and lived within this long transformation period.

114

For instance, some half-fish/half-reptiles should have lived in the

past which had acquired some reptilian traits in addition to the fish traits

they already had. Or there should have existed some reptile-birds, which

acquired some bird traits in addition to the reptilian traits they already

had. Since these would be in a transitional phase, they should be disabled,

defective, crippled living beings. Evolutionists refer to these imaginary

creatures, which they believe to have lived in the past, as "transitional

forms."

If such animals had really existed, there should be millions and even

billions of them in number and variety. More importantly, the remains of

these strange creatures should be present in the fossil record. In The Ori-

gin of Species, Darwin explained:

If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most close-

ly all of the species of the same group together must assuredly have exist-

ed... Consequently, evidence of their former existence could be found only

amongst fossil remains.40


The fossil record isa great barricade infront of the theory ofevolution. The fossilrecord shows thatliving speciesemerged suddenlyand fully-formedwithout anyevolutionarytransitional form between them. Thisfact is evidence thatspecies are createdseparately.


Darwin’s Hopes Shattered

However, although evolutionists have been conducting a vigorous

search for fossils since the middle of the 19th century all over the world, no

transitional forms have yet been uncovered. All the fossils unearthed in

excavations showed that contrary to the expectations of evolutionists, life

appeared on earth all of a sudden and fully-formed.

A famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this fact, even

though he is an evolutionist:

The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at

the level of orders or of species, we find—over and over again—not gradual

evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of anoth-

er.41

This means that in the fossil record, all living species suddenly

emerge as fully formed without any intermediate forms in between. This

is just the opposite of Darwin’s assumptions. Also, it is very strong evi-

dence that living beings are created. The only explanation for a living

species emerging suddenly and intact without any evolutionary ancestor

would be that this species was created. This fact is admitted also by the

widely known evolutionist biologist Douglas Futuyma:

Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible expla-

nations for the origin of living things. Organisms either appeared on the

earth fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they must have

developed from pre-existing species by some process of modification. If

they did appear in a fully developed state, they must indeed have been

created by some omnipotent intelligence.42

Fossils show that living beings emerged completely and perfectly on

the earth. That means that "the origin of species" is, contrary to Darwin’s

supposition, not evolution but creation.

The Tale of Human Evolution

The subject most often brought up by the advocates of the theory of

evolution is that of the origin of man. The Darwinist claim holds that the

116

modern men of today evolved from some kind of ape-like creatures. Dur-

ing this alleged evolutionary process, which is supposed to have started

4-5 million years ago, it is claimed that there existed some "transitional

forms" between modern man and his ancestors. According to this com-

pletely imaginary scenario, four basic "categories" are listed:

1. Australopithecus

2. Homo habilis

3. Homo erectus

4. Homo sapiens

Evolutionists call the so-called first ape-like ancestors of men "Aus-

tralopithecus," which means "South African ape." These beings were actu-

ally nothing but an old ape species that became extinct. Extensive research


There are no fossil remains that support the tale of human evolution. On thecontrary, the fossil record shows that there is an insurmountable barrier betweenapes and men. In the face of this truth, evolutionists fixed their hopes on certaindrawings and models. They randomly place masks on the fossil remains andfabricate imaginary half-ape, half-human faces.


done on various Australopithecus specimens by two world-renownedanatomists from England and the USA, namely, Lord Solly Zuckermanand Prof. Charles Oxnard, has shown that these belonged to an ordinaryape species that became extinct and bore no resemblance to humans.43

Evolutionists classify the next stage of human evolution as "homo,"that is, "man". According to the evolutionist claim, the living beings in theHomo series are more developed than Australopithecus. Evolutionistsmake a fanciful evolution scheme by arranging different fossils of thesecreatures in a particular order. This scheme is imaginary, because it hasnever been proved that there is an evolutionary relation between thesedifferent classes. Ernst Mayr, one of the foremost defenders of the theoryof evolution in the 20th century, admits this fact by saying that "the chainreaching as far as Homo sapiens is actually lost." 44

By outlining the link chain as "Australopithecus > Homo habilis >Homo erectus > Homo sapiens," evolutionists imply that each of thesespecies is another’s ancestor. However, recent findings of paleoanthropol-ogists have revealed that Australopithecus, Homo habilis and Homo erec-tus lived in different parts of the world in the same time.45

Moreover, a certain segment of humans classified as Homo erectushave lived up until very modern times. Homo sapiens neandarthalensisand Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) co-existed in the same region.46

This situation apparently indicates the invalidity of the claim thatany line of ancestry can be traced. A paleontologist from Harvard Uni-versity, Stephen Jay Gould explains this deadlock in the theory of evolu-tion, although he is an evolutionist himself:

What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lineages of

hominids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines, and H. habilis), none

clearly derived from another? Moreover, none of the three display any evo-

lutionary trends during their tenure on earth.47

Put briefly, the scenario of human evolution, which is sought to beupheld with the help of various drawings of some "half ape, half human"creatures appearing in the media and course books, that is, by means ofbarefaced propaganda, is nothing but a tale with no scientific backing.

118

Lord Solly Zuckerman, one of the most famous and respected scien-

tists in the U.K., who carried out research on this subject for years, and

particularly studied Australopithecus fossils for 15 years, finally conclud-

ed, despite being an evolutionist himself, that there is in reality no such

family tree branching out from ape-like creatures to man.

Zuckerman also made an interesting "spectrum of science." He

formed a spectrum of sciences ranging from those he considered scientif-

ic to those he considered unscientific. According to Zuckerman’s spec-

trum, the most "scientific"—that is, depending on concrete data—fields of

science are chemistry and physics. After them come the biological sci-

ences and then the social sciences. At the far end of the spectrum, which

is the part considered to be most "unscientific," are extra-sensory percep-

tion–including telepathy and the "sixth sense"–and finally "human evolu-

tion." Zuckerman explains his reasoning:

We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of pre-

sumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation

of man’s fossil history, where to the faithful (evolutionist) anything is possi-

ble - and where the ardent believer (in evolution) is sometimes able to

believe several contradictory things at the same time.48

The tale of human evolution adds up to little more than the preju-

diced interpretations of a number of fossils unearthed by certain people,

who blindly adhere to their theory.

Technology In The Eye and The Ear

Another subject that remains unanswered by evolutionary theory is

the excellent quality of perception in the eye and the ear.

Before passing on to the subject of the eye, let us briefly answer the

question of "how we see". Light rays coming from an object fall opposite-

ly on the retina of the eye. Here, these light rays are transmitted into elec-

tric signals by cells and they reach a tiny spot at the back of the brain

called the centre of vision. These electric signals are perceived in this cen-

tre of the brain as an image after a series of processes. With this technical



background, let us do some thinking.The brain is insulated from light. That means that the inside of the

brain is solid dark, and light does not reach the location where the brainis situated. The place called the centre of vision is a solid dark place whereno light ever reaches; it may even be the darkest place you have everknown. However, you observe a luminous, bright world in this pitchdarkness.

The image formed in the eye is so sharp and distinct that even thetechnology of the 20th century has not been able to attain it. For instance,look at the book you read, your hands with which you hold it, then liftyour head and look around you. Have you ever seen such a sharp anddistinct image as this one at any other place? Even the most developedtelevision screen produced by the greatest television producer in theworld cannot provide such a sharp image for you. This is a three-dimen-sional, coloured, and extremely sharp image. For more than 100 years,thousands of engineers have been trying to achieve this sharpness. Facto-ries, huge premises were established, much research has been done, plansand designs have been made for this purpose. Again, look at a TV screenand the book you hold in your hands. You will see that there is a big dif-ference in sharpness and distinction. Moreover, the TV screen shows youa two-dimensional image, whereas with your eyes, you watch a three-dimensional perspective having depth.

For many years, ten of thousands of engineers have tried to make athree-dimensional TV, and reach the vision quality of the eye. Yes, theyhave made a three-dimensional television system but it is not possible towatch it without putting on glasses; moreover, it is only an artificial three-dimension. The background is more blurred, the foreground appears likea paper setting. Never has it been possible to produce a sharp and distinctvision like that of the eye. In both the camera and the television, there is aloss of image quality.

Evolutionists claim that the mechanism producing this sharp anddistinct image has been formed by chance. Now, if somebody told youthat the television in your room was formed as a result of chance, that all

120


its atoms just happened to come together and make up this device thatproduces an image, what would you think? How can atoms do whatthousands of people cannot?

If a device producing a more primitive image than the eye could nothave been formed by chance, then it is very evident that the eye and theimage seen by the eye could not have been formed by chance. The samesituation applies to the ear. The outer ear picks up the available sounds bythe auricle and directs them to the middle ear; the middle ear transmitsthe sound vibrations by intensifying them; the inner ear sends thesevibrations to the brain by translating them into electric signals. Just aswith the eye, the act of hearing finalises in the centre of hearing in thebrain.

The situation in the eye is also true for the ear. That is, the brain isinsulated from sound just like it is from light: it does not let any sound in.Therefore, no matter how noisy is the outside, the inside of the brain iscompletely silent. Nevertheless, the sharpest sounds are perceived in thebrain. In your brain, which is insulated from sound, you listen to the sym-phonies of an orchestra, and hear all the noises in a crowded place. How-ever, if the sound level in your brain was measured by a precise device atthat moment, it would be seen that a complete silence is prevailing there.

As is the case with imagery, decades of effort have been spent in try-ing to generate and reproduce sound that is faithful to the original. Theresults of these efforts are sound recorders, high-fidelity systems, and sys-tems for sensing sound. Despite all this technology and the thousands ofengineers and experts who have been working on this endeavour, nosound has yet been obtained that has the same sharpness and clarity asthe sound perceived by the ear. Think of the highest-quality HI-FI systemsproduced by the biggest company in the music industry. Even in thesedevices, when sound is recorded some of it is lost; or when you turn on aHI-FI you always hear a hissing sound before the music starts. However,the sounds that are the products of the technology of the human body areextremely sharp and clear. A human ear never perceives a sound accom-panied by a hissing sound or with atmospherics as does HI-FI; it perceives


sound exactly as it is, sharp and clear. This is the way it has been since the

creation of man.

So far, no visual or recording apparatus produced by man has been

as sensitive and successful in perceiving sensory data as are the eye and

the ear.

However, as far as seeing and hearing are concerned, a far greater

fact lies beyond all this.

To Whom Does the Consciousness that

Sees and Hears Within the Brain Belong?

Who is it that watches an alluring world in its brain, listens to sym-

phonies and the twittering of birds, and smells the rose?

The stimulations coming from the eyes, ears, and nose of a human

being travel to the brain as electro-chemical nervous impulses. In biology,

physiology, and biochemistry books, you can find many details about

how this image forms in the brain. However, you will never come across

the most important fact about this subject: Who is it that perceives these

electro-chemical nervous impulses as images, sounds, odours and senso-

ry events in the brain? There is a consciousness in the brain that perceives

all this without feeling any need for eye, ear, and nose. To whom does this

consciousness belong? There is no doubt that this consciousness does not

belong to the nerves, the fat layer and neurons comprising the brain. This

is why Darwinist-materialists, who believe that everything is comprised

of matter, cannot give any answer to these questions.

For this consciousness is the spirit created by God. The spirit needs

neither the eye to watch the images, nor the ear to hear the sounds. Fur-

thermore, nor does it need the brain to think.

Everyone who reads this explicit and scientific fact should ponder on

Almighty God, should fear Him and seek refuge in Him, He Who

squeezes the entire universe in a pitch-dark place of a few cubic centime-

ters in a three-dimensional, coloured, shadowy, and luminous form.

A Materialist Faith

The information we have presented so far shows us that the theoryof evolution is a claim evidently at variance with scientific findings. Thetheory’s claim about the origin of life is inconsistent with science, the evo-lutionary mechanisms it proposes have no evolutionary power, and thefossil record demonstrates that the intermediate forms required by thetheory never existed. So, it certainly follows that the theory of evolutionshould be set aside as an unscientific idea. This is how many ideas, suchas the earth-centered universe model, have been removed from the agen-da of science throughout history.

However, the theory of evolution is insistently kept on the agenda ofscience. Certain individuals even try to present criticisms directed againstthe theory as an "attack on science." Why?

The reason is that the theory of evolution is an indispensable dog-matic belief for some circles. These circles are blindly devoted to materi-alist philosophy and adopt Darwinism because it is the only materialistexplanation that can be put forward for nature.

Interestingly enough, they also admit to this fact from time to time.A well-known geneticist and an outspoken evolutionist, Richard C.Lewontin from Harvard University, confesses that he is "foremost a mate-rialist and then a scientist" with these words:

It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to

accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary,

that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an

apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material expla-

nations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the

uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, so we cannot allow a

Divine Foot in the door.49

These are explicit statements that Darwinism is a dogma kept alivejust for the sake of adherence to the materialist philosophy. This dogmamaintains that there is no being save matter. Therefore, it argues that inan-imate, unconscious matter created life. It suggests that millions of differ-ent living species, for instance, birds, fish, giraffes, tigers, insects, trees,



flowers, whales and human beings originated as a result of the interac-tions between matter, such as the pouring rain, the lightning flash, etc., i.e.out of inanimate matter. This is a precept contrary both to reason and sci-ence. Yet Darwinists continue to defend this precept in order "not to allowa Divine Foot in the door."

Anyone who does not look at the origin of living beings with a mate-rialist prejudice will see this evident truth: All living beings are works ofa Creator, Who is All-Powerful, All-Wise and All-Knowing. This Creatoris God, Who created the whole universe from non-existence, designed itin the most perfect form, and fashioned all living beings.

124

r

rThey said: "Glory be to You!

We have no knowledge except what You have

taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."

(Surat al-Baqarah: 32)


1. Orhan Hançerlio¤lu, Düflünce Tarihi

(History of Idea), Remzi Kitabevi, ‹stan-

bul: 1987, p.432

2. Orhan Hançerlio¤lu, Düflünce Tarihi

(History of Idea), Remzi Kitabevi, ‹stan-

bul: 1987, p.447

3. Frederick Vester, Denken, Lernen,

Vergessen, vga, 1978, p. 6

4. George Politzer, Principes Fondamentaux

de Philosophie, Editions Sociales, Paris,

1954, pp. 38-39-44

5. Bilim ve Teknik Magazine (Science and

Technology), No. 227, p. 6-7

6. R.L.Gregory, Eye and Brain: The

Psychology of Seeing, Oxford University

Press Inc. New York, 1990, p.9

7. George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the

Principles of Human Knowledge", 1710,

Works of George Berkeley, vol. I, ed. A.

Fraser, Oxford, 1871

8. Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr.

Einstein, William Sloane Associate, New

York, 1948, p. 20

9. Bertrand Russell, ABC of Relativity,

George Allen and Unwin, London, 1964,

pp. 161-162

10. George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning

the Principles of Human Knowledge", 1710,


Fraser, Oxford, 1871 p. 35-36

11. Ali Demirsoy, Kal›t›m ve Evrim

(Inheritance and Evolution), p.4

12. Bertrand Russell, What is the Soul?,


Fraser, Oxford, 1871

13. Bertrand Russell, Three Dialogues

Between Hylas and Philonous, Works of

George Berkeley, vol. I, ed. A. Fraser,

Oxford, 1871

14. George Politzer, Principes Fondamentaux

de Philosophie, Editions Sociales, Paris,

1954, p. 40

15. Bilim ve Teknik Magazine (Science and

Technology), No:111, p.2

16. R.L.Gregory, Eye and Brain: The

Psychology of Seeing, Oxford University

Press Inc. New York, 1990, p.9

17. Ken Wilber, Holographic Paradigm and

Other Paradoxes, p.20

18. Bertrand Russell, ABC of Relativity,

George Allen and Unwin, London, 1964,

pp. 161-162

19. Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory, Zone

Books, New York, 1991

20. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature,

Book I, Section IV: Of Personal Identity

21. ‹mam Rabbani, Hz. Mektuplar› (Letters of

Rabbani), Vol II, 357. Letter, p. 163

22. ‹mam Rabbani, Hz. Mektuplar› (Letters of

Rabbani), Vol II, 470. Letter, p.1432

23. François Jacob, Le Jeu Des Possibles,

University of Washington Press, 1982, p.

111


NOTES

Notes 127


York, 1948, p. 52-53



York, 1948, p. 17



York, 1948, p. 58

27. Paul Strathern, The Big Idea: Einstein and

Relativity, Arrow Books, 1997, p. 57

28. Isaac Asimov, "Frontiers"



York, 1948, p. 84

30. Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God, p. 50

31. Sidney Fox, Klaus Dose, Molecular

Evolution and The Origin of Life, New

York: Marcel Dekker, 1977. p. 2

32. Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life, (1936)

New York, Dover Publications, 1953

(Reprint), p.196

33. "New Evidence on Evolution of Early

Atmosphere and Life", Bulletin of the

American Meteorological Society, vol 63,

November 1982, p. 1328-1330.

34. Stanley Miller, Molecular Evolution of Life:

Current Status of the Prebiotic Synthesis of

Small Molecules, 1986, p. 7

35. Jeffrey Bada, Earth, February 1998, p. 40

36. Leslie E. Orgel, "The Origin of Life on

Earth", Scientific American, Vol 271,

September 1994, p. 78

37. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A

Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard

University Press, 1964, p. 189



University Press, 1964, p. 184.

39. B. G. Ranganathan, Origins?,

Pennsylvania: The Banner Of Truth

Trust, 1988.




41. Derek A. Ager, "The Nature of the Fossil

Record", Proceedings of the British

Geological Association, vol 87, 1976, p.

133

42. Douglas J. Futuyma, Science on Trial,

New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. p. 197

43. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory

Tower, New York: Toplinger Publications,

1970, pp. 75-94; Charles E. Oxnard, "The

Place of Australopithecines in Human

Evolution: Grounds for Doubt", Nature, Vol

258, p. 389

44. J. Rennie, "Darwin's Current Bulldog:

Ernst Mayr", Scientific American,

December 1992

45. Alan Walker, Science, vol. 207, 1980, p.

1103; A. J. Kelso, Physical Antropology,

1st ed., New York: J. B. Lipincott Co.,

1970, p. 221; M. D. Leakey, Olduvai

Gorge, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge


46. Time, November 1996

47. S. J. Gould, Natural History, vol. 85, 1976,

p. 30

48. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory

Tower, New York: Toplinger Publications,

1970, p. 19

49. Richard Lewontin, "The Demon-Haunted

World", The New York Review of Books,

9 January, 1997, p. 28

When the wonderful harmony in nature is clearly observableeven with the naked eye, how can it be possible to think thatthis design was established haphazardly and by chance?Surely, there must be an owner of this design existing in ourbodies and reaching the remotest corners of the incrediblyvast universe. He must be a will who existed before the entireuniverse and who then created the universe: The EminentCreator in Whom everything finds existence and Whose Beingis without beginning or end... This book is a summons to think about the universe and theliving things God has created and to see the perfection in theircreation. 165 PAGES WITH 90 PICTURES IN COLOR

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We fall sick many times throughout our lives. When the eventsof "sickness" and "recovering" take place, our bodies become a

battleground in which a bitter struggle is taking place.Microbes invisible to our eyes intrude into our body and begin

to increase rapidly. The body however has a mechanism thatcombats them. Known as the "immune system", this mecha-

nism is the most disciplined, most complex and successfularmy of the world. This system proves that the human body is

the outcome of a unique design that has been planned with agreat wisdom and skill. In other words, the human body is the

evidence of a flawless creation, which is the peerless creationof God.

In the Qur'an it is stated "Surely Allah is not ashamed to setforth any parable- (that of) a gnat or any thing above that..."

(Surat al-Baqara: 26), because even so tiny a creature is full ofthe signs of God's excellent creation. By examining this tiny

animal, one comes to realize that life could not have originatedby itself but had to have been created by a Creator, who is

God, Possessor of eternal wisdom and knowledge and able todo all things.

This book is written to help clarify this concept by drawing at-tention to the amazing features of the gnat.

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think that there would not be much to tell about a little insect.When you read about the characteristics of termites, however,you will see that this idea is totally wrong. This insect, aboutwhich little is known, and which is mostly brushed aside, is

equipped with many miraculous features that will open up anew horizon of thought, revealing God's matchless creation.

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and the Qur'anic verses?All of these questions are answered in this book where it is de-

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and fate, read this book. 98 PAGES WITH 60 PICTURES IN COLOUR

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Scientific progress makes it clear that living beings have an ex-tremely complex structure and an order that is too perfect to havecome into being by accident. This is the most compelling evidence

to the fact that living beings are created by an All-PowerfulCreator invested with superior knowledge. Recently, for example,

the perfect structure in the human gene became a top issue as a re-sult of hte completion of the Human Genome Project. In this book,

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The essence of the human body, which is made up of 60-70 kilosof flesh and bone, was initially put together in a drop of water.

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complicated body structure, from a drop of water comes aboutthrough an extraordinary course of development. This develop-ment certainly does not happen as the result of an idle process,

and random coincidences, but is a conscious act of creation. Thisbook is about the details of the "miracle in man’s creation"

which is repeated with every human being born into the world.


God, in the Qur'an, callsthe culture of peoplewho are not subject tothe religion of God "ig-norance." Only a com-parison of this culturewith the moral structureof the Qur'an can revealits crude nature. Thepurpose of this book isto display the extent ofthe "crude understand-ing" of ignorant soci-eties.

The Qur'an has been revealed to us so that we may read andponder it. Unfortunately, current attitudes towards religion insociety today discourage people from pondering the Qur'an.The primary duty of a Muslim is to thoroughly learn the bookof God for it was revealed to people by their sole Lord as a"guidance to those who believe" (Surat al-Baqara, 2). BasicConcepts in the Qur'an is a useful resource prepared as a guideon this subject.

The most serious mistake a man makes is not pondering. It isnot possible to find the truth unless one thinks about basic

questions such as "How and why am I here?", "Who createdme?", or "Where am I going?." Failing to do so, one becomes

trapped in the vicious circle of daily life and turns into a self-ish creature caring only for himself. Ever Thought About the

Truth? summons people to think on such basic questions andto discover the real meaning of life.

A study thatexamines andseeks to re-mind us of thebasic moralprinciples ofthe Qur'an,particularlythose that aremost likely tobe forgotten orneglected attimes.

There are questions about religion that people seek answers toand hope to be enlightened in the best way. However in most

cases, people base their opinions on hearsay rather than ac-quiring them from the real source of religion: the Qur'an. In

these book, you will find the most accurate answers to all thequestions you seek answers for and learn your responsibilities

towards your Creator. .

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